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AFTER-WAR   PROBLEMS 


After- War  Problems 


By 

The  Earl  of  Cromer,  Viscount  Haldane, 

the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Professor 

Alfred  Marshall,  and  Others 


Edited  by  William  Harbutt  Dawson 


NEW   YORK 
THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 


First  published  in  igi? 


{All  rights  reserved] 


CONTENTS 


PAGK 


Introduction.     By  the  Editor     .  .  .  .  .7 


I.  EMPIRE  AND  CITIZENSHIP 

CHAPTER 

I.  Imperial  Federation.     By  the  Earl  of  Cromer             .  17 

II.  The  State  and  the  Citizen.     By  Bishop   Welldon        .  39 

III.  The  Cultivation  of  Patriotism.    By  the  Earl  of  Meath  59 

IV.  The  Alien  Question.    By  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston .            .  65 


II.  NATIONAL  EFFICIENCY 

V.  National  Education.     By   Viscount  Haldane      .  .     79 

VI.  Organization  of  the   National  Resources.     By   Sir 

Joseph  Compton-Rickett,  M.P.  .  .  .111 

VII.  The  State  and  Industry.    By  Dr.   W.  Garnett  .  123 

VIII.  The  State   and  Labour.     By  Professor  S.  J.  Chapman  137 

IX.  The     Relations     between     Capital     and     Labour. 

1.  The     Standpoint     of    Labour.      By     G.    H. 
Roberts^  M.P.  .  .  .  .  •149 

X.  The     Relations     between     Capital     and     Labour. 

2.  The  Standpoint  of  Capital.    By  Sir  Benjamin 

C.  Browne       .  .  .  .  ,  .170 


5  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOS 

XI.  The  Land  Question.     By  W.  Joy nson- Hicks,  M.P.     .  185 

XII.  The  Position  of  Women  in  Economic  Life.    By  Mrs. 

Fawcett  ......  191 


m.  SOCIAL  REFORM 

XIII.  The  Rehabilitation  of  Rural  Life.    By  the  Bishop 

of  Exeter  {Lord  William  Gascoyne- Cecil)       .  .219 

XIV.  Housing  after  the  War.     By  Henry  R.  Aldridge       .  233 
XV.  National  Health.  ByJamesKerr,M.A.,M.D.,D.P.H.  251 

XVI.  The  Care  of  Child  Life.     By  Margaret  McMillan      .  278 

XVII.  Unsolved    Problems    of    the    English    Poor  Law. 

Sir  William  Chance,  Bart.,  M.A.         .  .  .  291 

IV.  NATIONAL  FINANCE  AND  TAXATION 

XVI II.  National  Taxation  after  the  War.    By  Professor 

Alfred  Marshall  .  .  .  .  •  313 

1.  The  Appropriate  Distribution  of  its  Burden  .  313 

2.  Taxes  on  Imports :  The  New  International  Situation    329 
XIX.  National  Thrift.    By  Arthur  Sherwell,  M.P.  .  346 


Introduction 

By  the  editor 


ult  it  becomes  to 

Owing  to  the  abnormal  conditions  now  prevailing        md— the    word    is 

f  convenience — ^to 
in  the  printing  and  bookbinding  trades,  the  publi-  ^^j^^   ^^^  ^^^^ 

cation  of  this  book  has  been  unavoidably  delayed.         esterday,    nor   to- 

This  fact  is  stated  in  justice  to  several  of  the        ^  ^^^.^^  *  W^are 

Contributors    who    have    incorporated    in    their        rg  the  fulness  and 

chapters  statistical  or  other  data  which  need  to        does  not  feel  that 

ways  broken  with 
be  adjusted  to  continually  altering  circumstances.        ,j^  ^£  ^^^  history, 

d,  so  that  when 
rne  day  ot  peace  arrives,  be  it  soon  or  late,  we  shall  be 
confronted  at  home,  as  well  as  abroad,  by  an  altogether 
altered  situation? 

In  every  department  of  our  domestic  afifairs  new  con- 
ditions and  relationships  have  been  established  during  the 
last  two  and  a  half  years,  and  these  have  created  and  will 
create  new  problems,  some  of  a  profoundly  important  and 
delicate  character,  affecting  the  entire  fabric  and  the 
innermost  texture  of  our  social  life.  The  conditions  and 
problems  of  the  war  in  their  military  aspects  are  hardly 
likely  to  undergo  further  fundamental  change.  Can  it  be 
said,  however,  that  the  nation  yet  fully  realizes  what  the  war 
will  mean  for  its  future  life  at  home — the  duties  which  wiU 
have  to  be  faced  there,  and  which  we  shall  shirk  at  our 
peril,  and  the  demands  which  these  duties  will  make  upon 
patriotism,  public  spirit,  and  the  best  energies  that  can  be 
evoked  by  an  enlightened  and  self-sacrificing  citizenship  ? 

We  are  told  almost  every  day  stories — which  may 
materialize  or  may  not — of  the  wonderful  expansion  that 
awaits  our  commerce  ;    markets  from  which  we  have  been 

7 


S  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XL  The  Land  Question.    By  W.  Joynson-Hicks^  M.P.     .  185 

XIL  The  Position  of  Women  in  Economic  Life.    By  Mrs. 

Fawcett  ......  191 


m.  SOCIAL  REFORM 

XIIL  The  Rehabilitation  of  Rural  Life.    By  the  Bishop 

of  Exeter  (^^ii(^^^illu^iiGuscoyne-Cecit\  .  219 

XIV.  Housing  af 

XV.  National  H. 

XVI.  The  Care  c 

XVII.  Unsolved 
Sir  Will 

IV.  NATIO 

XVIII.  National  Taxation  after  the  War.    By  Professor 

Alfred  Marshall  .  .  .  .  •  313 

1.  The  Appropriate  Distribution  of  its  Burden  .  313 

2.  Taxes  on  Imports :  The  New  International  Situation    329 
XIX.  National  Thrift.    By  Arthur  Sherwell,  M.P.  .  346 


Introduction 

By  the  editor 

The  longer  the  war  lasts  the  more  difficult  it  becomes  to 
project  one's  mind  into  the  new  England — the  word  is 
used  in  a  representative  sense  as  one  of  convenience — ^to 
which  our  armies  will  return  when  their  tasks  have  been 
completed.  To-day  can  never  be  as  yesterday,  nor  to- 
morrow as  to-day.  If  that  is  true  for  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual, it  is  still  more  true  for  the  life  of  a  nation.  We  are 
living  at  a  time  when  days  and  weeks  have  the  fulness  and 
significance  of  years  and  decades.  Who  does  not  feel  that 
since  August  1914  England  has  in  many  ways  broken  with 
her  past  and  entered  an  entirely  new  epoch  of  her  history, 
marked  by  transformations  of  every  kind,  so  that  when 
the  day  of  peace  arrives,  be  it  soon  or  late,  we  shall  be 
confronted  at  home,  as  well  as  abroad,  by  an  altogether 
altered  situation? 

In  every  department  of  our  domestic  affairs  new  con- 
ditions and  relationships  have  been  established  during  the 
last  two  and  a  half  years,  and  these  have  created  and  will 
create  new  problems,  some  of  a  profoundly  important  and 
delicate  character,  affecting  the  entire  fabric  and  the 
innermost  texture  of  our  social  life.  The  conditions  and 
problems  of  the  war  in  their  military  aspects  are  hardly 
likely  to  undergo  further  fundamental  change.  Can  it  be 
said,  however,  that  the  nation  yet  fully  realizes  what  the  war 
will  mean  for  its  future  life  at  home — the  duties  which  will 
have  to  be  faced  there,  and  which  we  shall  shirk  at  our 
peril,  and  the  demands  which  these  duties  will  make  upon 
patriotism,  public  spirit,  and  the  best  energies  that  can  be 
evoked  by  an  enlightened  and  self-sacrificing  citizenship  ? 

We  are  told  almost  every  day  stories — which  may 
materialize  or  may  not — ^of  the  wonderful  expansion  that 
awaits  our  commerce  :    markets  from  which  we  have  been 


8  INTRODUCTION 

driven  are  to  be  reoccupied,  never  again  to  be  relinquished, 
and  many  of  our  industries  and  trades  are  to  have  the 
time  of  their  lives.  These  things  should  not  be  belittled, 
since  the  unexampled  strain  of  war  indebtedness  will  call 
for  the  utmost  development  of  the  nation's  industrial,  agri- 
cultural, and  commercial  resources  ;  yet,  none  the  less,  they 
do  not  touch  even  the  outermost  fringe  of  the  question 
which  really  matters  for  the  England  of  the  future  :  How 
is  the  war  going  to  leave  the  nation  itself,  its  life  and 
ideals,  its  motive  forces  and  aims?  There  is  danger  that 
in  our  concern  for  the  smaller  things  we  may  overlook  the 
greatest,  and  that  in  giving  overdue  prominence  to  the 
material  effects  of  military  success  the  nation  may  be  led 
to  lose  sight  of  the  higher  and  more  lasting  values. 

So,  again,  we  are  told  of  what  Germany  is  to  be  com- 
pelled to  do,  of  the  capitulations  and  i>enalties  which  are 
to  be  required  of  her  as  the  price  of  peace.  Here  like- 
wise prophecy,  in  so  far  as  it  is  well  informed,  is  perfecdy 
legitimate  and  may  be  helpful.  Yet  there  are  thousands  of 
Englishmen,  and  they  not  the  least  patriotic,  who  are  quite 
as  eager  to  know  what  England  herself  is  prepared  to  do  in 
order  to  help  in  and  sustain  the  coming  reign  of  peace  and 
goodwill  which  all  men  long  for  and  too  many  of  us  think 
will  come  automatically,  and  of  the  example  which  she  is 
going  to  offer  to  the  world  of  order  and  harmony  in  her 
own  household.  Already  the  nation's  contribution  to  the 
awful  holocaust  of  life  and  treasure  demanded  by  the  war 
has  been  appalling,  and  still  the  full  toll  has  not  been 
paid.  What  is  to  be  the  gain  in  return — the  gain,  not  to 
Europe  and  to  civilization  at  large,  which  to  most  people 
are  mere  abstractions,  but  to  ourselves  ?  If  the  gain  is 
to  be  equal  to  the  sacrifice,  it  must  surely  be  in  the  things 
wherein  we  as  a  people  have  hitherto  been  most  lacking. 

The  war  has  sobered  us.  Have  its  lessons  been  taken 
truly  to  heart  ?  Will  the  transformation  wrought  by  the 
war  prove  permanent?  Let  us  think  back.  How  was  it 
with  England  before  the  clarion  note  of  war  called  her 
people  to  forsake  the  ways  of  ease  and  complacency  ? 
How  many  were  the  earnest  voices — voices  neither  of 
pessimists  nor  croakers — which  had  warned  us  of  a  grow- 
ing slackness  in  the  national  character,  of  increasing 
flaccidity  of  will,  of  a  love  of  luxury  spreading  downward 
from  stratum  to  stratum  of  society,  and  a  steadily  weaken - 
wig  gTip  upon  the  true  elements  of  individual  and  national 


INTRODUCTION  ^ 

worth  I  How  many  there  were  who  longed  that  this  care- 
less, spoiled  England  would  just  for  one  quiet,  patient, 
unhurried  hour  commune  with  her  own  soul — 

stand  still,  my  soul,  in  the  silent  dark : 
I  would  question  thee — 

and  ask  in  honest  concern  if  all  were  really  well  there  ! 
Perhaps  to  some  of  these  there  came  at  times  unbidden  the 
thought,  which  they  almost  feared  to  harbour,  that  per- 
chance no  greater  blessing  could  be  bestowed  upon  this 
great  nation — so  rich  in  its  gifts  yet  so  slow  to  value  them, 
capable  of  the  highest  things  yet  so  prone  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  mean  and  the  trivial,  spoiled  by  wealth  and  appar- 
ently enervated  by  success — than  the  discipline  of  a  great 
ordeal,  some  mighty  stirring  that  should  perturb  it  to  the 
depths  of  its  being,  and  mercifully  compel  it  to  face  the 
master  facts  of  life  in  a  spirit  of  true  soberness. 

Observers  of  developments  in  other  parts  of  the  world, 
with  their  eyes  fixed  specially  upon  a  country  which  now 
is  our  mortal  enemy,  yet  was  not  always  so,  and  believing 
that  in  some  respects  that  country  held  the  key  to  our  own 
fate,  preached  in  season  and  out  of  season  their  sermons 
on  the  prosy  texts  of  Order,  Authority,  Discipline, 
Organization,  Patriotism,  the  greater  merging  of  the  one 
in  the  all,  and,  not  least.  Universal  Service  in  a  form  suited 
to  our  national  conditions  and  traditions.  Our  sermons 
may  have  been  dull,  and  perhaps  might  have  been  made 
less  so,  yet  at  least  they  were  not  duller  than  the  hearing 
of  those  who  refused  to  heed.  Even  these  appeals  on  the 
lower  plane  of  self-interest  seemed  to  pass  unregarded. 

Now  the  trial  has  come,  and  though  it  came  unex- 
pectedly, and  when  in  many  ways  we  were  unprepared  for 
it,  we  know,  happily,  that  the  doubters  doubted  too  much 
and  the  prophets  of  evil  prophesied  not  in  all  things  truly. 
Compelled,  in  one  of  those  supreme  crises  that  come  so 
rarely  in  the  history  of  nations,  to  choose  between  honour 
and  dishonour,  between  duty  and  ease,  the  nation  has 
proved,  no  less  by  its  choice  than  by  the  manner  of  sup- 
porting it,  that  it  is  sound  at  the  core,  however  much  there 
may  be  on  the  surface  of  its  life  that  is  capable  of 
betterment.  A  people  deemed  by  its  enemies  to  be 
decadent  and  almost  a  cumberer  of  the  earth,  and  by  many 
of  its  best  friends,  like  the  plain-speaking  American  Mr. 


10  mXRODUCTION 

Price  Collier,'  to  be  dangerously  ill  in  its  vital  parts, 
suddenly  threw  off  lethargy  and  flippancy  like  an  outworn 
garment.  Where  there  seemed  to  be  only  indifference, 
shallowness,  cynicism,  and  laxity  there  sprang  up  passionate 
enthusiasm  and  a  boundless  power  of  sacrifice.  The  nation 
that  can  thus  respond  to  the  call  of  a  great  emergency  has 
lost  none  of  its  old  will  and  right  to  Uve. 

And  yet  who  does  not  feel  that  the  severest  trial  for 
the  nation  at  large  remains  still  to  be  faced  ?  It  is  the 
test  of  the  moral  and  physical  reaction  which  will  inevit- 
ably come  when  the  strain  of  the  war,  with  its  ardours  and 
elations,  is  over,  and  the  nation  is  compelled  by  the  force 
of  circumstances  to  return  to  the  plain,  uninspiring  duties 
of  every-day  Ufe.  How  much  courage,  resolution,  and  self- 
discipline  it  will  then  need,  if  it  is  to  be  fortified  against 
depression,  lassitude,  and  a  disposition  to  adopt  the  deadly 
doctrine  of  laisser  I  aire,  laisser  passer ,  of  "  letting  things 
alone  ":  "  The  thing  that  hath  been,  it  is  that  which  shall 
be,  and  that  which  is  done  is  that  which  shall  be  done." 
The  spirit  in  which  the  nation  meets  and  masters  this 
reaction,  the  degree  to  which  it  carries  into  the  future 
the  strength  and  steadfastness  which  mark  the  present, 
will  for  good  or  ill  determine  the  course  of  English  social 
life  for  generations  to  come. 

There  is  one  discipline,  and  one  only,  that  wiU  carry  the 
nation  over  the  dead  points  and  send  it  forward  with  a  new 
momentum.  When  in  1871  France  came  out  of  her  agony, 
torn  and  bleeding,  broken  both  in  body  and  spirit, 
Gambetta  gave  to  his  coimtrymen  a  watchword  which  acted 
like  a  magic  anodyne  when  he  called  them  to  work  :  ''  Le 
travail,  encore  le  travail,  et  toujour s  le  travail!  "  That, 
too,  will  be  England's  hope  and  stay,  and  the  way  of  her 
renewal,  and  naught  else  will  avail — work  with  brain  and 
heart  and  hand  in  a  thousand  ways,  all  energies  bent  to  the 
one  purpose  of  healing  the  ravages  of  war,  giving  to  the 
national  life  a  new  and  greater  order,  bringing  up 
the  arrears  of  neglected  social  duty,  and  making  out  of 
the  old  England  an  England  worthier  of  the  men  who 
have  fought  and  fallen  for  her  honour  and  her  homes. 

It  is  here  that  we  touch  the  deepest  domestic  problean 
of  the  war.  The  ordeal  which  the  nation  has  been  called 
to  face  has  evoked  an  outburst  of  moral   energy  without 

»  "England  and    the   English,"   a  book  full   of    wholesome  criticism,   first 
published  in  1909,  and  now  more  than  ever  worth  thoughtful  pondering. 


INTRODUCTION  [li; 

parallel  in  the  history  of  the  British  race.  Shall  the  moral 
forces  now  in  action  be  demobilized  in  county  and  city, 
in  town  and  hamlet,  when  the  struggle  is  over  ?  Must 
they  not  rather  be  preserved  in  being,  as  a  standing  army 
for  the  service  of  the  national  life,  to  do  battle  everywhea-e 
against  the  enemies  within  our  own  gates?  Nobly  have 
the  nation's  manhood  and  womanhood  responded  to  the  call 
of  duty.  Soon  there  wUl  come  to  those  who  have  done 
great  deeds  on  the  high  plane  the  chance  of  proving  a 
like  heroism  and  devotion  in  the  triviaJ  round  and  com- 
mon task  of  social  and  civic  service.  Is  it  a  misuse  of 
words  to  say  that  when  the  war  abroad  is  over  the  war 
at  home  will  only  begin?  We  may  conquer  Germany, 
emancipate  Belgium,  and  free  Europe  and  mankind  from 
the  menace  of  malign  ambitions,  yet  if  the  war  does  not 
win  for  the  homeland  likewise  the  things  so  supremely 
necessary  to  its  welfare  and  peace  we  shall  have  fought 
and  suffered  and  sacrificed  in  vain. 

The  call  comes  from  the  graves  of  the  dead  that  we 
falter  not  in  this  high  purpose.  Who  can  think  without 
emotion  of  those  gallant  youths,  the  flower  of  the  nation's 
life,  whose  eager  faces  were  turned  to  the  future  with  hope 
and  ardoiir,  who  yet  at  the  call  of  duty  forsook  all  else 
that  was  precious  to  them  on  earth,  and  whose  bodies  now 
lie  beneath  unnumbered  mounds  on  the  fields  of  Flanders, 
the  hillsides  of  Gallipoli,  and  the  deserts  of  the  more 
distant  East  ?  They  died,  we  say,  for  England,  those  brave 
lads,  fresh  from  school  and  college  and  home.  Rather, 
they  died  for  two  Englands — the  England  which  we  know, 
with  all  its  social  evils,  that  shame  our  culture,  baflfle  our 
morality,  and  make  our  national  greatness  seem  a  cruel 
mockery  ;  yet  perhaps  more  truly,  if  not  more  consciously, 
for  another  England  altogether,  an  England  that  lives  as 
a  "  vision  splendid  "  in  the  imagination  of  all  true-hearted 
youth — an  England  of  cleaner  life,  sweeter  manners,  purer 
laws,  and  happier  homes,  the  England  of  their  hopes,  ideals, 
and  longings.  They  have  not  lived  to  re-create  that 
England,  but  the  thought  of  their  loss  to  us  would  be 
appalling  were  it  possible  that  their  aspirations  should  be 
quenched  like  smoking  flax,  and  their  dreams  perish  and 
pass  with  them  unrealized  into  the  silence  of  the  unknown. 
Rather  should  our  duty  to  the  dead  serve  as  the  measure 
of  our  responsibility  to  the  living.  Thus  and  thus  only 
will  England  pay  her  due  debt  to  those  who  have  fallen 


U  mTRODUCtlON 

for    her    sake,    and    prove    that    she    was    worthy    of    the 
sacrifice. 

It  is  good  to  wish  and  hope  for  such  a  national  renewal 
so  long  as  we  do  not  forget  that  if  it  is  to  be  realized  it 
will  be  by  systematic  hard  work — by  intelligent  national 
effort  co-ordinated  in  a  manner  and  on  a  scale  never  con- 
ceived as  possible  or  necessary  before.  To  this  end  the 
nation  needs  direction  quite  as  much  as  impetus  and 
stimulus.  We  are  not  on  the  whole  a  hard -thinking  people, 
but  rather  a  people  of  action,  impatient  of  theory  and 
method,  empirical  in  a  high  degree,  and  prone  to  approach 
our  problems  on  the  easy  solvitur  ambulanda  principle. 
Yet  the  nation  has  always  shown  willingness  to  listen  to 
the  counsels  of  men  and  women  who  enjoy  its  con- 
fidence. In  the  hope  of  contributing  towards  the  great 
task  of  after-war  reconstruction  this  volume  has  been  written 
by  publicists  for  all  of  whom  this  claim  may  justly  be  made. 

A  book  of  this  kind  could  not  with  advantage  have 
been  written  by  one  hand.  Pre-eminently  the  problems 
with  which  it  deals  called  for  treatment  by  specialists,  and 
it  will  be  seen  that  every  one  of  the  contributions  to  this 
symposium  relates  to  a  subject  with  which  the  writer  is 
in  some  special  way  closely  identified.  The  book  has 
been  written  in  the  ivl\  stress  of  war-time,  and  the  readers 
to  whom  it  is  addressed  will  not  fail  to  appreciate  at  its 
proper  value  the  patriotic  spirit  which  has  prompted  it  ; 
for  in  the  case  of  most,  and  probably  all,  of  the  writers  the 
following  essays  represent  just  one  more  act  of  public 
service  to  be  added  to  the  rest — the  one  additional  task 
for  which,  happily  for  the  public  hfe  of  this  country,  the 
busiest  men  and  women  always  have  or  are  able  to 
make  time. 

It  seems  desirable  to  say  at  once  that  the  Editor  accepts 
full  responsibility  for  the  plan  of  the  book,  with  the 
choice  of  subjects,  and  that  all  shortcomings  on  that  score 
must  be  laid  solely  to  his  account.  On  the  other  hand, 
each  writer  has  exercised  the  fullest  latitude  in  the  treat- 
ment of  his  subject,  and  is  responsible  only  for  the  opinions 
covered  by  his  signature.  The  work  had  necessarily  to 
be  confined  within  somewhat  narrow  limits,  so  that  it  has 
been  possible  to  review  only  a  selection  of  the  larger, 
more  urgent,  more  obvious  of  our  national  problems.  Yet 
diverse  though  the  subjects  dealt  with  are,  it  will  be  found 
that  a  certain  sequence  and  imity  runs  through  the  book. 


INTRODUCTION  ^13 

For  the  sake  of  convenience  the  subjects  have  been 
divided  into  broad  groups,  yet  the  intimate  interrelation 
of  the  several  groups  will  be  at  once  recognized. 
Problems  of  national  efficiency  and  social  reform',  for 
example,  are  inseparable  and  almost  identical.  For  not 
only  is  all  social  reform  in  essence  a  question  of  national 
efficiency,  but  the  great  social  changes  and  ameliorations 
which  are  vital  to  any  real  renewal  of  England  will  im- 
questionably  make  great  demands  upon  the  nation's  material 
resources,  already  deeply  mortgaged  by  the  war,  and  these 
demands  in  turn  will  be  successfully  met  just  in  the  measure 
that  the  productive  forces  of  the  country,  from  first  to 
last,  are  developed  with  greater  energy,  concentration,  and 
intelligence  than  ever  in  the  past. 

If,  therefore,  special  stress  appears  to  have  been  laid 
upon  the  economic  aspects  of  the  question  of  national 
efficiency,  it  is  from  a  recognition  of  the  integral  relation- 
ship between  national  wealth  and  national  welfare.  Bis- 
marck gave  Protection  to  the  industrial  and  agricultural 
classes  of  his  country  in  order  that  he  might  be  justified 
in  levying  upon  them  in  turn  tribute  in  the  service  of 
costly  insurance  legislation  and  other  social  reforms.  I 
admit  frankly  that  in  giving'  prominence  in  this  book  to 
pleas  for  the  greater  efficiency  and  better  ordering"  of  our 
national  economy,  as  a  task  in  which  the  State  will  need  to 
co-operate  with  private  effort  more  closely  and  actively  than 
ever  before,  I  have  had  in  mind  the  prospect  of  reciprocal 
social  recompense  in  other  directions,  though  it  is  right 
to  add  that  this  is  a  purely  personal  view*.  In  a  truly 
civilized  society  wealth  creation  can  never  be  an  end  in 
itself.  Wealth,  for  nations  or  individuals,  is  only  moral 
when  it  is  acquired  by  moral  means  for  moral  ends,  and 
the  greatest  of  moral  ends  is  the  evolution  of  humaner 
social  conditions  and  relationships.  That  way,  too,  and 
that  way  only,  lies  the  hope  of  social  peace. 

With  these  explanatory  words  the  book  may  be  left  to 
speak  for  itself  and,  if  possible,  to  achieve  its  purpose. 
Every  thoughtful  man  and  woman  knows  of  the  problems 
which  it  discusses  and  of  those  other  problems  of  society 
— some  created,  others  mferely  accentuated  by  the  war — 
which  have  been  passed  over  in  consequence  of  limitations 
of  space.  The  urgent  thing  is  that  we  should  endeavour 
betimes  to  see  our  way  through  these  problerris,  so  hastening 
the  day  when  this  England,  this  Scotland,  Wales,   Ireland 


14  INTRODUCTION 

— for  one  may  stand  for  all  where  all  are  one — shall  at 
last  become  a  real  home  to  all  her  sons  and  daughters, 
calling  up  as  never  before  to  their  affections  and  their 
reverence  the  truest  friend  they  know  and  the  best  they 
love  in  the  wide  world. 

The  nation's  moral  awakening  has  come:  now  comes 
the  need  for  the  moral  life.  Yet  let  us  not  look  for 
miracles.  Whatever  the  new  England  becomes  will  be 
the  result  of  long  and  painful  effort,  of  sacrifice  and 
renunciation  of  all  kinds,  made  by  men  and  women  of 
good -will  ;  and  we  shall  succeed  in  proportion  as  we 
keep  before  our  eyes  ideals  that  are  not  so  high  that 
they  "  lose  themselves  in  the  sky,"  aiming  at  the  best 
practicable  for  the  present,  and  from  that  slowly  work- 
ing on  to  the  best  conceivable.  The  individual  citizen 
will  help  in  the  common  task  by:  going  back,  as  far  as 
in  him  lies,  to  the  forgotten  habits  of  siniplicity,  sober- 
ness, diligence,  and  self-control.  Old  truths  will  need  to 
be  revived — the  truths  that  obedience  is  not  dishonouring, 
that  liberty  can  live  only  in  the  atmosphere  of  law,  that 
Jack  is  as  good  as  his  master  only  when  he  proves  it  and 
not  because  he  says  it,  that  some  men  are  fitted  to  rule 
and  others  more  fitted  to  serve,  yet  that  ruling  and  serving 
are  but  two  parts  of  the  same  act,  whose  name  is  duty. 
The  nation  collectively  will  help  by  bringing  into  the  order- 
ing of  its  life  and  policies  clearer  aims,  greater  intelli- 
gence, and  a  higher  moral  purpose,  by  trusting  more  to 
principles  and  less  to  instincts — not  supplanting  the  instincts, 
but  directing  them  by  reason — and  by  thinking  always  of 
the  second  and  the  third  step  before  the  first  is  taken. 

Only  by  the  cultivation  and  co-ordination  of  all  her 
intellectual  and  moral  forces  and  vitalities  will  England 
come  through  her  final  ordeal  triumphantly,  able  to  face 
the  future  with  unshaken  will  and  undaunted  spirit — ^not, 
in  the  words  of  the  Oxford  poet,  as  "  the  weary  Titan 
bearing  on  shoulders  immense,  Atlantean,  the  load,  well- 
nigh  not  to  be  borne,  of  the  too  vast  orb'  of  her  fate,*' 
but  rather,  in  the  image  of  that  older  poet  of  the  sister 
University,  as  "an  eagle  mewing  her  mighty  youth  and 
kindling  her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  midday  beam." 


I 

EMPIRE  AND  CITIZENSHIP 


CHAPTER    I 

Imperial  Federation' 

By    the    earl    OF    CROMER 

The  predominating  feature  of  modern  political  thought 
in  the  domain  of  international  affairs  is  unquestionably  the 
idea  of  Nationalism.  Every  statesman — at  all  events,  every 
democratic  statesman — is  convinced  that  in  the  more  ample 
recognition  of  the  Nationalist  principle  is  to  be  found,  not 
merely  a  means  for  harmonizing  political  action  with  the 
dictates  of  justice  and  sound  public  morality,  but  also  the 

'  The  lamented  death  of  Lord  Cromer  on  January  29,  1917,  a  short  time  after 
he  had  corrected  the  proofs  of  this  chapter,  allows  the  Editor  to  acknowledge 
here  the  readiness  with  which  this  distinguished  Englishman,  who  by  his  great 
work  in  Egypt  has  placed  not  only  that  country  but  the  Empire  and  the  world 
in  lasting  debt,  gave  to  the  proposal  to  prepare  the  present  volume  of  essays  his 
warm  sympathy.  Invited  to  co-operate  in  the  undertaking,  and,  if  willing,  to 
select  one  of  three  subjects  suggested  to  him,  he  at  once  wrote,  "There  can 
be  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  necessity  of  such  a  book.  I  shall  be  very 
glad  indeed  to  do  what  I  can  to  help,  and  I  think  probably  the  best  subject 
for  me  to  deal  with  would  be  Federation."  How  conscious  he  was  of  the 
difficulty  as  well  as  the  urgency  of  this  question  is  shown  by  some  further 
words  in  the  same  letter  : — "  Federation  is  in  the  air.  Every  one  is  preaching 
it.  But  the  difficulties  of  finding  some  practical  way  of  giving  effect  to  it  are 
enormous.  ...  I  do  not  anticipate  that  I  can  do  much  more  than  state  the 
pros  and  cons,  without  attempting  to  suggest  any  cut-and-dried  solution."  In  a 
later  letter  he  wrote  :  "  All  the  political  thinkers  tell  us  that  we  ought  to 
federate,  but  unfortunately  they  all  end  where  the  practical  politician  would 
like  them  to  begin.  They  do  not  tell  us  how  the  policy  is  to  be  carried  into 
execution.  .  .  .  The  main  thing  for  the  moment  is  to  discuss  the  whole  question 
thoroughly,  and  in  a  spirit  very  sympathetic  to  the  Colonial  demands.  The 
Colonies  have  a  very  strong  case,  but,  I  repeat,  the  whole  of  the  difficulties  are 
not  questions  of  principle  but  are  purely  practical."  It  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  essay  that  when  he  came  to  face  his  task  Lord  Cromer  found  himself 
able  to  go  beyond  the  mere  statement  of  the  case  for  Federation,  and,  without 
attempting  a  "  cut-and-dried  "  solution — which  no  one  knew  better  than  he  to 
be,  at  the  present  stage,  impossible — to  make  practical  suggestions  of  high 
value. — The  Editor. 

:2  17 


1 8  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

key  to  many  of  the  most  perplexing  problems  of  the  day. 
It  is  not  imfrequently  held  that  this  principle  is  the  anti- 
thesis of  that  of  the  old  theory  of  the  Balance  of  Power, 
which  is  now  almost  universally  condemned.  The  argu- 
ment, though  in  some  respects  valid,  may,  however,  be 
pushed  too  far.  It  is  true  that  in  past  times  the  principle 
of  the  Balance  of  Power  has  been  applied  in  a  manner 
which  was  not  merely  neglectful  of,  but  even  diametrically 
antagonistic  to,  the  assertion  of  national  rights,  but  no 
moralist  or  enlightened  politician  would  now  be  disposed 
to  defend  such  applications  of  that  principle  as  were 
involved,  for  instance,  in  the  successive  partitions  of  Poland. 
Nor  would  they  counsel  adhesion  to  views  such  as  those 
held  at  a  later  period  by  statesmen  of  the  type  of 
Mettemich  and  Castlereagh. 

Nevertheless,  it  would  be  altogether  a  mistake  to  suppose 
that  the  necessity  for  a  Balance  of  Power  of  some  sort 
has  altogether  disappeared.  Far  from  this  being  the  case, 
there  probably  never  was  a  time  when  the  maintenance 
of  a  just  balance  between  the  strength  of  the  Great  Powers 
of  the  world  was  more  necessary  than  now,  for  one  amongst 
them  avowedly  aims,  not  merely  at  European  hegemony 
but  even  at  universal  world -dominion.  But  the  Balance 
must  be  established  with  aims  wholly  different  from  those 
which  have  heretofore  prevailed.  It  must  be  directed  inter 
alia,  not  to  the  discouragement  but  to  the  encouragement 
of  national  imification.  '  Indignation  at  Prussian  methods 
and  condemnation  of  latter-day  Prussian  policy  should  not 
be  allowed  to  obscure  the  fact  that,  even  so  late  as  1870, 
the  absolutist  Government  of  Prussia  was  endeavouring  to 
assert  the  right  of  homogeneous  peoples  to  amalgamate, 
whilst  the  relatively  democratic  Government  of  France  was 
prepared  to  resist  that  right  by  a  recoiu-se  to  arms.  French 
opposition  to  the  unification  of  Southern  and  Northern 
Germany  was  the  real  cause  of  the  Franco -Prussian  War. 
Any  attempt  to  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  applica- 
tion of  the  Nationalist  principle  because  it  incidentally  leads 
to  an  aggrandizement  of  territory  by  an  homogeneous  com- 
munity should,  therefore,  be  definitely  set  aside.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  new  Balance  should  have  as  one  of  its  main 
objects  the  realization  of  the  political  ideal  of  Wordsworth, 
who,  as  Professor  Dicey  has  recently  reminded  us,  was  an 
early  and  extremely  rational  Nationalist.  It  should  be 
directed  to  guaranteeing  the  independence  of  each  genuinely 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  19 

Nationalist    unit,    and    more    especially    that    of    the    least 
powerful  amongst  them. 

Obviously,  one  of  the  first  preliminary  conditions  essen- 
tial before  applying  the  Nationalist  principle  is  to  obtain 
some  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  a  nation.  Much  has  been 
said  and  written  on  this  subject.  It  is  probably  impos- 
sible to  define  so  complex  a  conception  as  nationality  in 
the  terse  language  of  an  epigram,  but  for  all  practical 
purposes  the  definition  given  by  Mr.  Arnold  Toynbee,  in 
his  work  entitled  "  The  New  Europe,"  may  be  accepted 
as  a  !good  workable  basis  for  discussion.  Mr.  Toynbee  says 
that  in  order  to  call  a  nation  into  existence  there  must 
be  "  a  will  to  co-operate."  The  existence  or  absence  of 
that  will  depends  on  several  factors,  which  vary  according^ 
to  the  special  circumstances  of  each  case.  It  may  be 
created  by  identity  of  race,  religion,  language,  and  senti- 
ment. It  may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  absent  even  in  cases 
where  all  these  elements,  tending  to  cohesion,  exist  in  a 
full  degree.  It  may  be  due  to  common  economic  interests 
which  are  sufficiently  strong  to  overcome  all  the  centrifugal 
forces  of  racial  animosity,  divergence  of  national  senti- 
ment, and  differences  of  language  or  religion.  Thus,  the 
South  American  republics,  many  of  whom  were  at  the  time 
merely  republican  in  name,  flew  asunder  directly  after  they 
had  thrown  off  Spanish  or  Portuguese  domination,  in  spite 
of  the  existence  of  many  elements  which  would  have 
appeared  to  tend  to  close  union.  Their  economic  and 
presumed  political  interests  diverged,  with  the  result  that 
they  fought  bitterly  with  each  other  and  that  each .  eventually 
established  its  own  separate  independence. 

Immediately  after  the  British  provinces  of  North  America 
had  declared  their  independence  it  seemed  highly  prob- 
able that  something  similar  would  occur.  Mr.  Olivier, 
in  his  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  says  that  the  first  step 
which  the  thirteen  States  of  America  took  after  they  had 
shaken  off  the  British  yoke  was  "  to  indulge  themselves  in 
the  costly  luxury  of  an  internecine  tariff  war.  .  .  .Pennsyl- 
vania attacked  Delaware.  Connecticut  was  oppressed  by 
Rhode  Island  and  New  York.  ...  It  was  a  dangerous 
game,  ruinous  in  itself,  and,  behind  the  Custorrt-house 
officers  men  were  beginning  to  furbish  up  the  locks  of 
their  muskets.  .  .  .  And  at  one  timte  war  between  Vermont, 
New  Hampshire,  and  New  York  seemed  all  but  inevit- 
able."    Rather   more   than   half  a   century  ago  the   racial 


20  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

and  other  ties  which  united  the  several  States  of  North 
America  did  not  prevent  the  occurrence  of  a  civil  war, 
which  originated  in  what  was  really  an  economic  question, 
although  it  had  important  humanitarian  and  political  aspects 
— the  continuance  or  abolition  of  slavery.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  spite  of  racial  animosity,  diversity  of  language, 
and  to  some  extent  of  religion,  an  identity  of  economic 
interests  has  tended,  and  may  perhaps  still  continue  to  tend, 
to  hold  together  the  discordant  national  units  which  collec- 
tively make  up  the  Empire  of  the  Habsburgs.  The  case 
of  the  British  is  the  exact  antithesis  of  that  of  the  Austrian 
Empire.  Identity  of  race,  language,  etc.,  has  proved  an 
effective  binding  force,  in  spite  of  a  divergence,  or.supposted 
divergence,  of  economic  interests. 

How  is  Nationalism,  which  is  based  on  the  right  to 
autonomy,  to  be  reconciled  with  Imperialism,  which  is  often 
dictated  by  economic  interests  or  geographical  considera- 
tions, and  which  need  not  necessarily,  but  may  often,  be 
irreconcilable  with  the  assertion  of  autonomous  rights  ? 
Democratic  political  thinkers  answer,  almost  with  one  voice, 
"  By  the  adoption  of  the  system  of  Federalism."  They  are 
unquestionably  right  in  principle. 

Federalism  is  the  natural  and  legitimate  offspring  of 
Nationalism.  The  idea  of  federating  the  British  Empire 
has  for  many  years  been  in  the  air.  The  days  are  long 
past  when  it  was  necessary  for  such  a  man  as  Wakefield, 
of  whom  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe  said  that  "  God  had  made 
him  greater  than  the  Colonial  Office,"  to  ply  reluctant 
and  short-sighted  statesmen  with  arguments  to  convince 
them  that  the  Colonies  were  not  a  burden  to  the  Mother 
Coimtry,  and  that  they  were  wrong  in  thinking  that  the 
only  wise  policy  to  pursue  was  to  shuffle  off  the  load  as  soon 
as  circumstances  would  permit  of  the  adoption  of  such  a 
course.  Any  public  man  who  now  ventured  to  give  utter- 
ance to  such  sentiments  would  forth^vith  condemn  himself 
to  political  extinction.  The  very  term  "  colony,"  which 
as  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis  pointed  out  in  1841,  was 
even  then  often  misapplied,  has  now  become  a  complete 
misnomer.  In  the  most  important  cases  it  has  been  already 
changed  into  "  Dominion."  What  were  formerly  British 
Colonies  have,  in  fact,  now  grown  into  being  allied  British 
nations.  In  this  case  the  "  will  to  co-operate  "  exists  in 
the  highest  degree,  both  on  the  part  of  the  parent  stock 
and    its    offspring.       The    self-governing    Dominions    are 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  '21 

closely  united  to  each  other  and  to  the  United  Kingdom  by 
the  bond  of  identical  political  institutions  and  by  community 
of  sentiment  and  opinion  as  regards  the  general  principles  on 
which  government  should  be  conducted.  In  many  of  them 
complete  racial  affinity,  the  use  of  a  common  language, 
similarity  of  religious  faith,  and  identity  of  manners  and 
customs  serve  to  tighten  the  bond,  and  where,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  French  in  Canada  and  the  Dutch  in  South 
Africa,  these  latter  elements  of  cohesion  are  in  some  degree 
wanting,  experience  has  shown  that  by  the  adoption  of  a 
wise  and  liberal  policy  such  differences  as  exist  in  no  way 
tend  to  enfeeble  the  desire  for  unity.  Instead  of  the 
feeling  of  oppression  at  being  burthened  by  the  Colonies 
which  formerly  existed,  there  has  grown  up  in  the  United 
Kingdom  a  very  legitimate  sense  of  pride  in  the  colonial 
connection,  a  conviction  that,  far  from  proving  a  source 
of  weakness,  each  unit  in  the  Empire  serves  to  enhance 
the  strength  of  the  whole  fabric,  and  a  strong  sentimental 
feeling  which,  in  dealing  with  a  people  whom  so  acute 
an  observer  as  Lord  Beaconsfield  characterized  as  the  most 
emotional  commimity  in  Europe,  should  by  no  means 
be  neglected,  that  it  would  be  shameful  for  England  to 
play  the  part  of  a  }X)litical  Clytemnestra  and  to  act  as  an 
"  unmotherly  mother  "  (fifiTrip  afxriTwfip),^  who  rejects  the 
claims  based  on  parentage  and  spurns  her  own  offspring. 
The  link  with  the  Colonies,  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain  very 
truly  said,  "  must  not  be  galling."  The  colonials  fully 
recognize  that  it  does  not  gall,  and  that  it  rests  with  them, 
and  with  them  alone,  to  sever  it  completely  should  they 
wish  to  do  so.  They  are  fully  aware  that  no  sane  British 
statesman  would  for  one  moment  propose  that  coercion 
should  be  exercised  in  order  to  oblige  them  to  main- 
tain a  connection  which  had  become  irksome  or  distaste- 
ful to  them.  But  they  are  far  from  desiring  severance. 
They  hold  that  both  self-interest  and  sentiment  point  to 
the  conclusion  that,  if  any  change  is  to  take  place,  it 
should  be  in  the  direction,  not  of  separation  but  of  closer 
union,  which  must  never,  however,  in  any  degree  impair 
local  autonomy.  Recent  events  have  enormously  tended 
to  strengthen  the  force  of  these  considerations.  Never 
did  the  short-sighted  and  defective  statesmanship  of  Berlin 
err  more  conspicuously  than  when  it  thought  that  national 
peril  would  exercise  a  dissolving  effect  on  the  component 
»  Sophocles,  El,  i.  154, 


2  2  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

parts  of  the  British  Empire.  The  very  opposite  has  taken 
place.  The  event  which  it  was  thoug^ht  would  sunder 
the  colonial  connection  has  tended  to  solder  it  together  to 
the  extent  of  imparting  to  it  a  strength  and  rigidity  which 
has  astonished  the  world.  To  the  amazement  of  all  abso- 
lutists and  coercionists  the  link  was  found  to  be  so  tough 
because  it  was  so  slender.  Never  have  democratic  prin- 
ciples achieved  a  greater  triumph.  Professor  Macphail, 
who  is  a  Canadian,  says  with  great  truth,  in  one  of  his 
*'  Essays  in  Politics,"  "  The  greatest  feat  of  England  in 
Empire -building  since  1759  is  that,  during  the  past  twenty 
years,  she  has  won  back  her  Colonies  by  the  cords  of 
affection  alone." 

Looking  to  all  these  favourable  symptoms  and  conditions, 
it  may  well  be  asked.  Why  has  the  policy  of  Federalism, 
up  to  the  present  time,  only  been  applied  locally?  Why 
has  it  been  confined  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  highly 
important,  but  nevertheless  subsidiary,  tasks  of  federating 
the  Dominions  in  Australia,  British  North  America,  except 
Newfoundland,  and — with  the  exception  of  Rhodesia,  which, 
it  may  be  hoped,  will  ultimately  join — South  Africa?  The 
answer,  broadly  speaking,  is  that  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and 
Indian  Oceans  interpose  an  obstacle  which,  if  not  insuper- 
able, is  certainly  very  formidable.  The  proximity  of  each 
imit  to  the  other  component  parts  of  the  Federal  group  did 
not,  indeed,  cause  but  it  immensely  facilitated  the  process 
of  federation  in  the  United  States  and  in  the  more  recent 
British  cases.  Distance,  on  the  one  hand,  greatly  enhances 
the  difficulty  of  carrying  the  work  of  federation  to  its 
logical  conclusion.  Even  New  Zealand,  although  separated 
from  Australia  by  a  distance  slight  by  comparison  with  that 
which  lies  between  the  United  Kingdom  and  any  of  the 
self-governing  Dominions,  does  not  form  part  of  the 
Australasian  Commonwealth.  The  subject  must,  however, 
necessarily  be  reconsidered  at  the  close  of  the  present  war, 
and  it  will  be  as  well  to  ponder  beforehand  over  what  can 
be  done  to  secure,  if  not  the  establishment  at  one  bound 
of  a  system  which  fully  realizes  the  Federal  ideal,  at  all 
events  the  creation  of  one  which  will  unite  the  whole  Empire 
together  by  ties  even  stronger  than  those  which  already 
exist.  '       I     ;       \  '  I 

The  strength  of  the  bonds  which  imite  the  Mother 
Country  and  the  Colonies  was  never  put  to  a  more  severe 
test  than  when,  during  the  mid -Victorian  period,  the  latter 


imperial:  federation  23 

claimed  and  were  allowed  the  right  to  tax  British  imports. 
The  issue  at  stake  was  one  that  might  conceivably  have 
led  to  disruption.  It  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  Experi- 
ence has  proved  that  full  fiscal  autonomy  can  be  exercised 
by  the  Colonies  without  impairing  the  unity  and  solidarity 
of  the  Empire.  Since  then  one  of  the  burning  questions 
of  the  day  has  been  whether  it  is  possible  or  desirable  to 
revert  to  the  old  practice  of  according  Preferential  treat- 
ment to  colonial  produce  imported  into  the  United  Kingdom, 
or  whether  the  Dominions  and  Colonies  should,  as  at 
present,  continue  to  be  treated,  for  the  purposes  of  the 
present  argument,  in  every  respect  on  the  same  basis  as 
foreign   countries. 

I  should  like  to  preface  the  remarkis  I  am  about  to  make 
on  this  subject  by  explaining  the  personal  point  of  view 
from  which  I  approach  it.  It  is  that  of  a  convinced  Free 
Trader.  Although,  of  course,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say 
that  I  agree  entirely  with  all  that  Free  Traders  have  in 
the  past  said  about  Free  Trade,  I  jam  nevertheless  far  from 
holding  that,  to  use  an  expression  which  is  now  very  com- 
monly employed,  Free  Trade  is  a  mere  "  fetish."  On 
the  contrary,  I  hold  very  strongly  that  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  Free  Trade  are  justified  by  economic  laws  which 
cannot  be  violated  without  eventually  taking  condign 
vengeance  upon  those  who  violate  them.  The  general 
arguments  for  and  against  Protection  will,  in  my  opinion, 
remain  just  the  same  after  the  war  as  they  were  before  its 
outbreak.  Protection  must  always  operate  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  few  and  to  the  detriment  of  the  many.  None 
the  less,  I  am  quite  prepared  to  admit,  not  only  that 
circumstances  have  been  greatly  changed  by  the  war,  but 
also  that  the  whole  question  of  fiscal  policy  cannot  be 
decided  wholly  by  looking  to  the  economic  aspects  of  the 
issues  at  stake.  Political  considerations  have  also  to  be 
taken  into  account.  I  am  wholly  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  view  apparently  entertained  by  Mr.  Norman  Angell  and 
others  of  his  school  that  all  but  economic  arguments  should 
be  ignored.  As  regards  the  special  case  of  Germany,  I 
am,  of  course,  of  opinion  that,  until  peace  is  concluded,  a 
vigorous  trade  war  is  not  merely  justifiable,  but  is  imposed 
by  the  necessities  of  the  case.  I  may  go  farther  than  this 
and  say  that  even  after  the  war,  if  the  political  institu- 
tions of  Germany  remain  unchanged,  if  they  still  consti- 
tute a  menace  to  the  peace  of  the  world,  and  if  the  German 


-24  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

Government  still  continues  to  adopt  commercial  methods 
for  the  attainment  of  political  objects  and  military  advan- 
tages, the  trade  war  may  justifiably  be  continued  and  that 
economic  considerations  may,  while  such  a  state  of  things 
lasts,  remain  in  abeyance.  On  the  other  hand,  it  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  it  is  conceivable — I  dare  not  be  so 
sanguine  as  to  say  that  it  is  probable — that  after  the  war 
German  political  institutions  will  undergo  a  radical  change, 
that  a  more  democratic  system  of  government  will  be  estab- 
lished in  that  country,  that  the  militarist  spirit  will,  to  a 
certain  extent,  be  quenched,  that  Germany  will  be  in  a 
condition  again  to  take  her  place  amongst  the  comity  of 
civilized  nations,  and  that  German  statesmen  will  be  pre- 
pared to  base  their  political  action  upon  the  moral  standards 
which  her  present  rulers  spurn  and  reject,  but  which  are 
generally  accepted  by  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world.  If 
any  such  transformation  should  take  place,  and  if  we  should 
in  the  future  have  to  deal  with  a  changed  Germany,  any 
attempt  to  boycott  that  country  would  involve  our  losing 
a  good  customer  and  at  the  same  time  debarring  ourselves 
from  using  such  of  the  products  of  Germany  as  may 
profitably  and  advantageously  be  imported  into  this 
coimtry. 

It  is  obviously  impossible  for  any  one  at  present  to 
attempt  to  sketch  out  any  cut-and-dried  scheme  in  respect 
to  the  fiscal  policy  which  we  must  adopt  in  the  future. 
All  that  can  be  done  is  to  indicate  a  few  general  principles 
which  may  profitably  be  borne  in  mind.  Before  we  can 
go  farther  we  must  all,  whether  Free  Traders  or  Tariff 
Reformers,  know  how  we  shall  stand  at  the  close  of  the 
war.  All  that  is  at  present  clear  is  that  we  shall  have  to 
bear  an  enormously  increased  charge  for  interest  on  the 
accumulated  debt,  for  Sinking  Fund,  for  pensions,  and  other 
consequences  which  will  result  from  the  war.  Further,  if 
the  adoption  of  such  a  course  can  possibly  be  avoided, 
we  ought  not  to  arrest,  even  for  a  term  of  years,  the  pro- 
gress of  social,  and  notably  of  educational,  reform.  It  is 
abundantly  clear  that  in  order  to  meet  all  these  charges 
a  very  large  increase  of  revenue  will  be  required,  and  the 
increase  will  certainly  be  considerable  even  supposing  that, 
as  a  result  of  the  war,  a  large  permanent  reduction  is 
possible  in  the  direction  of  naval  and  military  expendi- 
ture—a point  as  to  which  nothing  can  be  foretold  until  the 
terms  of  jseace  are  settled  and  we  know  wheth^  other  nations 


IMPERIAL'    FEDERATION  '2$ 

are  prepared  to  adopt  a  reasonable  policy  of  disarmament. 
As  regards  the  methods  of  raising  increased  revenue, 
I  am  very  clearly  of  opinion  that,  in  the  first  instance, 
it  should  be  raised,  as  is  at  present  the  case,  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  direct  taxes  which  will  fall  mainly  on  the  well-to- 
do  classes.  But  not  merely  is  it  a  matter  of  justice  that 
all  classes,  whether  well-to-do  or  the  reverse,  should  bear 
some  share  in  the  new  burdens,  but,  further,  it  is  to  be 
observed  that,  although  we  have  perhaps  not  yet  reached 
the  maximum  amount  which  it  is  possible  to  levy  upon 
the  rich,  we  are  approaching  the  limit  beyond  which  nothing 
more  in  that  direction  can  be  done  without  entailing 
disastrous  consequences,  which  would  fall,  not  merely  on 
the  rich  but  also  on  the  poor.  I  hold  to  it,  therefore,  as 
proved  that  indirect  taxes  "will  have  to  be  imposed,  and  I 
have  for  long  considered  that  the  Government  is  blame- 
worthy for  not  having  imposed  more  taxes  of  this  nature 
some  while  ago.  It  is  certain  that  some  of  these  taxes 
will  act  protectively.  This  cannot  be  avoided,  for  even 
if  it  were  thought  desirable  to  impose  equivalent  excise 
duties,  their  imposition  in  every  case  would  be  practically 
impossible. 

Amongst  the  numerous  plans  which  have  recently  been 
put  forward  for  dealing  with  the  fiscal  future  there  is  one 
which  certainly  possesses  great  attraction.  It  is  that  the 
United  Kingdom,  its  Colonies  and  Dependencies,  and  the 
Allied  nations  should  join  together  and  that  all  should 
agree  to  impose  import  duties  for  revenue  purposes  only. 
It  is  to  be  presumed  that  under  this  system  other  neutral 
nations  would  be  allowed,  should  they  think  it  desirable  to 
do  so,  to  join  the  Concert.  If  the  plan  could  be  carried 
out,  it  would  be  a  very  distinct  step  towards  that  Free 
Trade  within  the  Empire  which  for  a  long  time  past  has 
been  the  ideal  both  of  Free  Traders  and  Protectionists  in 
this  country.  Indeed,  it  would  go  farther  than  this,  for  the 
same  conditions,  which  would  be  mutually  conceded  by 
the  United  Kingdom  and  the  Colonies  to  each  other,  would 
be  granted  to  a  large  and  important  group  of  foreign 
countries.  But  is  this  programme  at  all  capable  of  execu- 
tion? I  greatly  doubt  it.  I  question  whether  the  British 
Colonies  or  the  friendly  nations,  whom  it  is  proposed  to 
bring  into  the  group  and  who  are  now  all  Protectionists, 
would  agree  to  abandon  their  Protectionist  policy  and  to 
allow  free   competition   within   their   own   territories   in   so 


'26  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

far  as   it   was   not    impeded   by  the   relatively   low    duties 
imposed  for  revenue  purpvoses. 

Failing  the  adoption  of  this  somewhat  grandiose  project, 
which  appears  to  me,  for  the  time  being  at  all  events,  to  be 
incapable  of  realization,  the  question  will  remain  as  to  what 
is  to  be  done  by  the  United  Kingdom  in  respect  to  the 
Preferential  treatment  of  the  Colonies.  The  question 
obviously  presents  itself  for  consideration  under  conditions 
different  from  those  which  have  heretofore  prevailed.  One, 
though  not  the  only,  objection  which  Free  Traders  have 
in  the  past  urged  against  according  Preferential  treatment 
to  the  Colonies  has  been  that  the  adoption  of  this  course 
necessarily  involved  the  imposition  of  a  general  tariff.  I 
hold  that  the  establishment  of  such  a  tariff  is  now  inevit- 
able. If  this  view  is  correct,  one  of  the  most  formidable 
of  the  Free  Trade  objections  will  be  removed.  More- 
over, for  my  own  part,  I  am  quite  prepared  to  admit  that, 
looking  to  recent  events  and  to  the  staunch  loyalty  with 
which  both  the  Dominions  and  India  have  stood  by  the 
British  Empire  in  the  hour  of  trial,  the  political  should 
be  allowed  to  predominate  over  the  economic  arguments, 
and  that  if  any  fairly  workable  scheme  can  be  devised 
Preference  should  be  accorded  at  British  ports  to  colonial 
and  Indian  produce.  But  it  is  essential  that  the  scheme 
should  be  workable,  and  this,  I  venture  to  think,  can  only 
be  done  if  the  Preference  accorded  is  not  excessive.  Past 
history  affords  a  very  useful  lesson  as  to  what  not  only 
may  but  certainly  will  occur  if  Preference  on  an  excessive 
scale  is  allowed.  To  quote  one  or  two  instances  in  illus- 
tration of  what  I  mean,  I  may  mention  that  in  the  old  days 
of  colonial  Preference  a  duty  of  55s.  per  load  was  im- 
posed on  timber  coming  from  foreign  countries,  "whereas 
on  timber  from  the  Colonies  a  duty  of  only  5s.  a  load 
was  paid.  The  result  was  that  timber  was  imported  from 
the  Scandinavian  countries  to  Canada  and  then  re -shipped 
to  the  United  Kingdom  as  Canadian  timber,  the  difference 
of  50s.  a  load  making  the  transaction  very  profitable  to 
the  exporter.  Similarly,  coffee  was  sent,  not  merely  from 
Braril  but  even  out  of  bond  from  England,  to  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  and  re-exported  to  the  United  Kingdom,  the 
dutv  on  colonial  coffee  being  only  6d.,  whereas  that  on  the 
foreign  article  was  is.  3d.  a  pound.  I  greatly  doubt 
whether  any  elaborate  system  of  certificates  of  origin  and 
suchlike  devices,  though  giving  an  infinity  of  trouble,  would 


IMPERIAU    FEDERATION  '27 

be  able  to  check  evasions  of  this  description.  Therefore 
I  maintain  that,  for  all  practical  poirpwDses,  if  a  Preference 
is  to  be  accorded  to  the  Colonies,  it  will  be  imperative 
that  the  difference  between  the  duty  on  colonial  produce 
and  on  that  of  a  similar  nature  which  comes  from  foreign 
countries  should  not  be  so  great  as  to  give  rise  to  a  revival 
of  the  abuses  and  evasions  of  the  past. 

Divergence  of  opinion  on  matters  connected  with  fiscal 
policy  is  not,  however,  the  main  obstacle  which  stands  in 
the  way  of  complete  federation.  The  question  of  the  extent 
to  which  the  self-governing  Dominions  should  contribute 
to  the  defence  of  the  Empire  has  to  be  considered.  This 
is  a  matter  of  great  importance  ;  but  if  it  stood  by  itself, 
the  solution  of  the  problem  involved  need  not  necessarily 
entail  any  fundamental  changes  of  a  constitutional  character. 
The  question  of  the  amount  which  each  unit  of  the  Empire 
should  contribute  to  Imperial  defence,  leaving  it,  of  course, 
wholly  to  the  local  legislatures  to  decide  how  the  money 
should  be  raised,  does  not  inevitably  involve  the  discussion  of 
any  very  vital  questions  of  principle.  It  could  perfectly  well 
be  settled  by  negotiation,  without  the  necessity  arising  for 
making  any  fundamental  change  in  the  existing  framework 
under  which  the  several  parts  of  the  Empire  are  governed. 

The  future  treatment  of  all  matters  which  fall  within 
the  domain  of  foreign  policy  raises  issues  of  a  more  im- 
portant and  also  of  a  far  more  complex  character.  More- 
over, inasmuch  as  foreign  policy  is  intimately  connected 
with  the  relative  naval  and  military  strength  of  various 
States,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  army  and  navy  depends 
in  a  very  great  degree  on  the  financial  resources  of  each 
State,  it  may  well  be  that  if  any  fundamental  change  is 
made  in  the  manner  in  which  that  policy  is  conducted, 
the  transformation  would  carry  with  it  the  desirability,  or 
even  the  necessity,  of  effecting  a  corresponding  change  in 
the  control  of  the  military  and  naval  forces  of  the  Crown, 
as  also,  although  to  a  less  extent,  in  the  financial  methods 
adopted  for  the  maintenance  of  those  forces.  Is,  there- 
fore, any  such  change  desirable  or  necessary?  If  so,  what 
should  be  its  nature?  These  are  questions  which  will 
certainly  have  to  be  considered  with  the  utmost  care  at 
the  close   of  the  war. 

There  has  recently  been  a  good  deal  of  discussion,  some- 
times of  rather  wild  discussion,  on  the  subject  of  what  is 
now  termed  "  secret  diplomacy,"     So  responsible  a  states-. 


"28  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

man  as  Lord  Haldane,  although  in  using  the  phrase  it  is 
to  be  gathered  from  the  context  of  his  remarks  that  he 
did  not  attach  the  same  significance  to  it  as  that  with  which 
it  is  not  unfrequently  vested  in  the  public  estimation,  is 
reported  to  have  said  that,  in  his  opinion,  one  result  of 
the  war  will  be  that  "  secret  diplomacy  will  disappear." 
There  appears,  indeed,  to  be  an  opinion  very  generally 
entertained  by  an  influential  section  of  the  British  public 
that  a  profound  dislike  of  democracy  and  of  all  demo- 
cratic ideas  and  methods  of  government  is  innate  in  the 
minds  of  all  members  of  the  diplomatic  service,  that  they  are 
constantly  engaged  in  weaving  mysterious  and  generally 
nefarious  plots  to  the  detriment  of  peace  and  of  the  general 
interests  of  civilization,  that  they  are  aware  that  their  pro- 
ceedings will  not  stand  the  light  of  day,  and  that  the  main 
object  of  their  lives  is  to  cast  a  veil  of  profound  secrecy 
over  both  their  intentions  and  their  methods.  I  am  now 
speaking  only  of  British  diplomatists.  I  am  not  concerned 
with  the  proceedings  of  those  of  other  nations.  More 
especially  do  I  gladly  yield  those  of  German  and  Austrian 
diplomatists  to  the  tender  mercies  of  their  most  sevene 
British  critics.  So  far,  however,  as  British  diplomacy  is 
concerned,  I  can,  speaking  perfectly  untrammelled  by  official 
obligations  and  with  a  quarter  of  a  century's  experience  of 
the  methods  adopted  by  the  Foreign  Office,  declare  very 
positively  that  these  notions  constitute  a  complete  delusion. 
They  are  based  on  false  and  haphazard  conjectures  and 
on  the  wholly  erroneous  supposition  that  the  traditions  of 
eighteenth -centur>'^  diplomacy,  albeit  they  survive  to  this 
dav  at  Berlin  and  Vienna,  are  still  current  in  Downing' 
Street, 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  those  traditions  have  long  since 
been  banished  from  British  official  life.  British  diplomacy 
may  at  times  have  been  inept,  but  for  many  a  long  year 
it  has  been  scrupulouslv  honest,  perfectly  able  to  stand, 
without  shrinking,  the  light  of  the  utmost  publicity,  and 
wholly  in  conformity  with  the  aspirations  and  moral 
standards  adopted  by  an  advanced  democracy.  It  was  not 
the  fault  of  the  British  diplomatists  that  the  outbreak  of 
the  present  war  came  like  a  thunderclap  to  the  amazed 
people  of  this  country.  Some  of  them  probably  showed 
greater  foresight  than  others.  Some  believed,  and  others 
disbelieved,  in  the  possibility  of  preserving  the  peace  of 
the  world.      But  whatever  may  have  been  their  opinions, 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  29 

it  was  not  part  of  their  duty  to  proclaim'  them  to  the  rest 
of  the  world.  If  the  public  were  not  forewarned,  the 
responsibility  lies,  not  with  British  diplomacy,  but  with 
British  statesmanship.  It  seems  impossible  to  escaj>e  from 
the  dilemma  that  the  Ministers  of  the  day  collectively  either 
failed  to  realize  the  gravity  of  the  impending  danger,  or, 
if  they  realized  it,  lacked  the  moral  courage  to  impart  their 
apprehensions  to  the  democracy  and  to  take  beforehand  the 
measures  most  essential  to  meet  the  coming  crisis. 

All  this  is  true  enough.  Nevertheless,  in  so  far  as  the 
subject  now  under  discussion  is  concerned,  there  is  much 
force  in  the  accusation  that  British  diplomacy  has  been 
imduly  secret.  The  self-governing  Dominions  of  the  Crown 
have  been  asked  and  expected  to  take  part  in  the  greatest 
war  recorded  in  history  without  either  their  responsible 
rulers  or  their  inhabitants  being  in  any  way  consulted  as 
to  the  wisdom  of  engaging  in  hostilities,  and  without  being 
previously  furnished  with  any  adequate  information  in 
respect  to  all  the  circumstances  which  preceded  the  declara- 
tion of  war  and  which  rendered  it  inevitable.  They  re- 
sponded nobly  and  willingly  to  the  call.  But  will  they 
be  prepared  to  adopt  a  similar  course  in  the  future.-*  Will 
they  continue  to  acquiesce  patiently  in  a  system  under 
which  their  national  destinies,  the  lives  of  their  inhabitants, 
and  the  resources  of  their  Treasuries  are  placed  absolutely 
at  the  disposal  of  an  authority  over  whom  they  can  exer- 
cise no  control,  and  of  whose  proceedings  they  are  kept  in 
whole  or  partial  ignorance  ?  So  far  as  can  at  present 
be  judged,  the  answer  to  these  questions  must  be  in 
the  negative,  more  especially  in  so  far  as  Canada  is 
concerned. 

Some  quotations  from  the  most  recent  utterances  of 
eminent  colonial  statesmen  will  suffice  to  show  the  views 
which  they  generally  entertain  on  this  subject.  Sir  Robert 
Borden  has  emphatically  stated  that  in  the  future  Canada 
will  "  no  longer  be  content  to  be  an  adjunct  even  of  the 
British  Empire."  Even  before  the  war — that  is  to  say, 
in  September  191 3 — he  spoke  of  "the  inborn  feeling  in 
the  Canadian  breast  that  a  British  subject  living  in  this 
Dominion  must  ultimately  have  as  potent  a  voice  in  the 
government  and  guidance  of  this  world-wide  Empire  as 
the  British  subject  living  in  the  United  Kingdom."  Sir 
George  Perley  who,  Messrs.  Percy  and  Archibald  Hurd 
say,   '*  is  known  in  this  matter  to  be  expressing  the  deep 


30  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

convictions  of  the  Prime  Minister  of  Canada/ '»  after  stating 
in  a  recent  speech  that  he  represented  a  county  in  the 
Province  of  Quebec,  added  :  '*  I  wish  to  say  that  it  would 
be  impossible  for  me  to  get  up  on  a  platform  in  that 
county,  which  I  have  represented  for  ten  years,  and  to 
argue  that  Canada  should  do  as  she  is  now  doing  for  all 
time,  whenever  war  may  come,  without  knowing  before- 
hand and  being  consulted  regarding  the  questions  at  issue 
which  may  make  such  a  war  necessary."  Messrs.  Hurd 
also  say  :  "  The  British  House  of  Commons  was  recently 
startled  by  the  quotation  in  debate  of  the  declaration  of 
a  Canadian  who  was  described  as  '  one  of  the  greatest 
men  in  Canada.'  Discussing  the  services  Canada  rendered 
in  the  war  he  said,  '  It  is  the  last  time  Canada  is  going 
to  do  this  '  ;  and  he  added  that  England  *  could  not  count 
in  future  on  the  splendid  contribution  of  Canada  to  our 
armed  forces  if  we  did  not  take  Canada  more  into  our 
councils  and  confidence.'  "  ^  Sir  Charles  Sifton,  speak- 
ing at  Montreal  early  in  191 5,  said  :  "  Canada  must  now 
stand  as  a  nation.  It  will  no  longer  do  for  Canada  to  play 
the  part  of  a  minor.  It  will  no  longer  do  for  Canadians 
to  say  that  they  are  not  fully  and  absolutely  able  to  trans- 
act their  own  business.  We  shall  not  be  allowed  to  do 
this  any  longer  by  the  nations  of  the  world.  We  shall 
not  be  allowed  to  put  ourselves  in  the  position  of  a  minor. 
The  nations  will  say.  If  you  can  levy  armies  to  make 
war,  you  can  attend  to  your  own  business,  and  we  will  not 
be  referred  to  the  head  of  the  Empire  ;  we  want  you  to 
answer  our  questions  directly.  There  are  many  questions 
which  we  shall  have  to  settle  after  this  war  is  over,  and 
that  is  one  of  them."  The  Hon.  W.  P.  Schreiner,  High 
Commissioner  for  South  Africa  and  ex-Premier  of  Cape 
Colony,  recently  said  :  "I  associate  myself  very  much  with 
the  idea  that  the  near  future  after  the  war  must  see  a 
little  more  attention  given  to  practical  improvement  in  the 
methods  and  system  under  which  the  Empire  is  now  run. 
I  am  not  prepared  at  the  moment  to  say  what  particular 
way  should  be  followed,  but  some  way  should  be  followed, 
not  in  order  to  tie  the  bonds  more  tightly — for  they  should 
remain  elastic — but  so  that  there  should  be  no  knots  to 
cause  friction."  Expressions  of  opinion  of  this  sort,  all 
pointing  to  the  same  general  conclusion,  might  be 
multiplied. 

•  "  The  New  Empire  Partnership  "  by  Percy  Hurd  and  Archibald  Hurd,  p.  253. 

•  Ibid.,  p.  xi. 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  31; 

The  case  of  the  self-governing  Dominions,  considered 
as  a  matter  of  theory  and  exclusively  on  its  own  merits, 
is  absolutely  unanswerable.  No  believer  in  democratic 
institutions  can  for  one  moment  contend  that  several 
powerful  and  populous  democracies  can  be  expected 
patiently  to  endure  the  continuance  of  the  present  system. 
The  strength  of  the  case  has  been  in  some  degree 
enhanced  by  reason  of  the  absence  of  satisfactory  results 
obtained  under  the  present  regime.  It  would  not  only  be 
premature,  but  in  the  highest  degree  unjust,  to  condemn 
the  recent  diplomacy  of  the  British  Foreign  Office  without, 
in  the  first  instance,  obtaining  that  full  information  about 
what  has  actually  occurred  which  is  not  at  present  avail- 
able. Moreover,  it  has  to  be  remembered  that  Downing 
Street  has  not,  like  Berlin — with  the  Viennese  Foreign  Office 
practically  in  its  pocket — been  altogether  master  in  its  own 
house.  It  has  been  necessary  to  bring  no  less  than  four 
different  and  distant  Foreign  Offices  and  War  Offices  into 
line  in  order  to  ensure  common  action  on  the  part  of  the 
Allies.  It  may  confidently  be  surmised  that  the  difficulty 
of  securing  complete  unity  of  action  has  often  been  very 
considerable.  At  the  same  time,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  diplomacy  of  the  Foreign  Office,  especially  in  the  Near 
East,  has  not  been  productive  of  satisfactory  results,  and 
it  is  very  natural  that  grave  suspicions  should  have  been 
excited  that  it  has  not  been  conducted  with  any  marked 
degree  of  skill  or  judgment. 

Not  only,  however,  is  the  case  of  the  Dominions  un- 
answerable, but  it  may  confidently  be  asserted  that  there 
is  no  sort  of  desire  to  contest  its  validity.  The  force  of 
the  colonial  argiunents  is  generally  admitted.  The  "  will 
to  co-operate  "  exists  in  the  highest  degree.  Only  one 
question  remains  outstanding.  It  is  how  best  to  ensure 
the  desired  co-operation.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the 
solution  of  that  question  bristles  with  practical  difficulties. 

The  conservative  and  perhaps,  it  may  to  some  extent 
be  said,  the  official  view  of  the  matter  may  briefly  be 
stated  as  follows  :  The  existing  system,  it  is  urged,  is 
admittedly  full  of  anomalies.  It  is  indefensible  in  theory. 
But  in  practice  it  works  well.  It  has  produced  admirable 
results,  which  might  very  probably  not  have  been  secured 
by  the  adoption  of  a  more  rigid  and  logical  system. 
Beware,  lest  in  touching  so  delicate  a  piece  of  political 
machinery,  you  do  not  bring  the  whole  fragile  fabric  about 


32  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

your  ears.  No  solution,  or  at  all  events  no  immediate 
and  complete  solution,  is  possible.  Leave  well  alone.  It 
is  better  to  bear  those  ills  we  have  than  fly  to  others  that 
we  know  not  of. 

It  would  be  a  very  great  error  to  neglect  views  of  this 
description  merely  because  they  are  conservative  and  run 
counter  to  the  direction  of  the  popular  feeling  of  the  day. 
They  are,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  held  by  many  who 
have  made  a  special  and  lifelong  study  of  colonial  ques- 
tions aijd  who  can  speak  with  very  high  authority  upon 
them.  Thus  Sir  Charles  Lucas,  speaking  recently  at  the 
Royal  Colonial  Institute,  said  :  "I  want  to  warn  you  all 
that  any  Federation  or  Union  of  English  people  must 
grow.  Any  cut-and-dried  scheme  would  be  fatal,  con- 
trary to  English  history,  contrary  to  English  instincts,  a 
German  plan  which  they  call  Kultur."  Nevertheless,  jt 
will  only  be  with  the  utmost  reluctance  that  the  public, 
whether  in  the  United  Kingdom  or  in  the  Colonies,  will  be 
led  to  believe  in  the  bankruptcy  of  British  statesmanship. 
There  must  surely,  it  will  be  urged,  be  some  means  for 
solving  the  problem,  thorny  though  it  be.  It  may  con- 
ceivably be  necessary  to  fall  back  on  the  maintenance  of 
the  status  quo  if,  after  every  endeavour  has  been  made  to 
introduce  some  satisfactory  and  generally  acceptable 
changes,  the  result  is  failure.  But  until  this  happens,  the 
hope  of  realizing  the  noble  ideal  and  the  far-reaching 
political  conception  which  now  expands  before  the  eyes  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  should  on  no  account  be  abandoned. 

The  only  practical  proposal  in  connection  with  this 
subject  which  was  made  at  the  Colonial  Conference  in  191 1, 
was  that  brought  forward  by  Sir  Joseph  Ward.  It  is 
imnecessary  to  describe  it  in  detail.  Indeed,  the  precise 
nature  of  the  suggested  scheme  was  left  by  its  author  in 
some  degree  of  obscurity.  But  it  is  essential  to  refer  to 
the  highly  important  speech  made  by  the  Prime  Minister 
(Mr.  Asquith)  when  the  matter  came  under  discussion. 
He  stated  emphatically  that  the  authority  of  the  Imperial 
Government  in  dealing  with  all  matters  connected  with 
foreign  affairs    "  cannot  be  shared." 

The  view  thus  taken  by  Mr.  Asquith  is  unquestionably 
sound  in  this  sense,  that,  in  the  interests  of  the  whole 
Empire,  there  must  be  unity  of  control  over  the  conduct 
of  foreign  affairs,  and  that  this  unity  can  only  be  secured 
by  confiding  the  direction  of  foreign  policy  to  the  hands 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  33 

of  the  predominant  partner  in  the  Imperial  concern.  It 
would,  indeed,  be  possible  to  create  a  separate  Imperial 
Cabinet  and  an  Imperial  Parliament  to  deal  with  such 
matters.  I  will  allude  further  to  this  propK)sal  presently. 
Here  I  need  only  remark  that,  even  if  such  a  plan  were 
adopted,  the  practical  result,  although  it  would  be  attained 
by  a  different  and  more  circuitous  route,  would  not  very 
materially  differ  from  that  which  is  secured  by  the  exist- 
ing system.  The  authority  and  responsibility  of  the 
Imperial  Government  would,  indeed,  nominally  be  "  shared  " 
by  the  Governments  of  the  Dominions  ;  but  under  any 
scheme  which  would  present  the  least  chance  of  being 
generally  accepted  the  voices  of  the  British  representa- 
tives, both  in  the  Imperial  Cabinet  and  the  Imperial 
Parliament,  would  be  so  enormously  preponderating  as 
practically  to  leave  them  masters   of  the  situation. 

I  may  mention  incidentally  that,  in  writing  on  this  sub- 
ject, Messrs.  Hurd  appear  to  attach  special  importance  to 
the  fact  that  on  July  15,  191 5,  Sir  Robert  Borden  was 
invited  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  British  Cabinet.  The 
incident  also  seems  to  have  been  regarded  by  a  section  of 
the  British  and  colonial  Press  as  an  epoch-making  event. 
It  would  be  an  exaggeration  to  regard  it  in  any  such  light. 
It  was  a  satisfactory  symptom  that  the  British  Government 
wished,  on  some  point  of  special  importance,  to  obtain  an 
expression  of  opinion  from  the  Canadian  Prime  Minister. 
But  it  was  not  more  than  this.  It  gave  no  indication  of 
any  intention  to  usher  in  a  radical  change  in  the  existing 
system  for  conducting  business.  It  has  for  long  been 
the  practice,  when  any  special  issue  was  under  considera- 
tion, occasionally  to  invite  some  individual,  whose  opinion 
it  was  thought  necessary  to  obtain,  to  attend  a  Cabinet 
meeting.  Under  the  Ministries  both  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
the  late  Lord  Salisbury  I  was  on  several  occasions  re- 
quested to  attend  when  Egyptian  questions  formed  the 
subject   of  discussion. 

Before  proceeding  any  farther  it  may  p>erhap>s  be  as 
well  to  dispel  an  illusion  which  may  possibly  exist  in  the 
minds  of  some.  A  pledge  has  been  already  given  that, 
before  the  terms  of  peace  are  settled  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  present  war,  full  consultation  shall  take  place  with 
the  responsible  Ministers  of  the  Dominions.  It  may  perhaps 
be  thought  by  some  people  that  all  that  is  now  required 
is   that   a   somewhat    similar    pledge    should   be    given    in 

3 


34  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

respect  to  future  action — that  is  to  say,  that  no  decisive 
step  should  be  taken  in  the  domain  of  foreign  policy  with- 
out previous  consultation  with  the  Governments  of  the 
Dominions.  Any  such  idea  would  be  a  complete  delusion. 
More  than  this  is  required.  Apart  from  the  consideration 
that  in  many  cases  such  prompt  action  is  required  as  to 
render  consultation  even  by  telegraph  highly  objectionable, 
if  not  altogether  impossible,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  any 
one  who  has  had  practical  experience  in  dealing  with  foreign 
affairs  must  be  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  it  would  be 
futile  to  expect  even  the  most  capable  man  or  body  of 
men  to  give  any  valuable  opinion  on  a  special  issue  unless 
they  had  previously  acquired  full  knowledge  of  all  the 
events  which  had  led  up  to  the  issue  being  raised.  In 
the  large  majority  of  important  cases  the  whole  field  of 
foreign  relations,  as  also  their  recent  history,  has  to  be 
surveyed  before  a  definite  or  valuable  opinion  can  be  pro- 
nounced on  any  special  point,  and  in  order  advantageously 
to  make  any  such  survey  a  full  acquaintance  with  all  recent 
circumstances  and  incidents  of  real  importance  is  essen- 
tial. More  than  this,  it  is  often  not  by  any  means  easy  to 
decide,  in  the  first  instance,  what  is  and  what  is  not  a 
really  important  issue.  It  not  unfrequently  happens  that 
some  incident  occurs,  or  that  some  decision  has  to  be 
taken,  which  appear  at  first  sight  to  be  unimportant,  but 
which  acquire,  by  the  light  of  after -events,  a  character  of 
very  great  importance.  It  is  essential,  therefore,  that 
if  the  Governments  of  the  Dominions  are  to  be  taken 
seriously  into  council  they  should  be  in  a  position  to  watch 
the  operations  in  the  whole  field  of  foreign  policy  during 
normal  times,  and  this  they  cannot  do  unless  they  are 
kept  well  informed. 

Broadly  speaking,  there  are  two  methods  by  which  con- 
sultation with  the  Dominions  can  be  secured.  One  is  to 
associate  them  to  a  greater  extent  than  at  present  with  the 
executive  action  of  the  British  Government.  The  other 
is  to  go  farther  afield,  to  change  the  whole  Constitution 
of  the  British  Empire,  and,  by  some  kind  of  legislative 
amalgamation,  to  enable  the  people  of  each  separate 
Imperial  unit  to  make  their  voices  heard  by  adopting  the 
normal  and  habitual  proceedings  common  under  all  demo- 
cratic forms  of  government.  Obviously,  the  former  of 
these  two  alternatives  possesses  the  advantage  that  U 
involves,  relatively  speaking,  a  far. less   degree  of  radical 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  '35 

change,  and  that  it  is  much  less  difficult  to  carry  into 
execution  than  the  latter. 

In  order  to  associate  the  Dominions  with  the  executive 
action  of  the  British  Government  it  would  be  possible  to 
establish  a  special  department  at  the  Foreign  Office,  whose 
functions  would  be  to  keep  the  representatives  of  the 
Dominions  fully  informed  of  everything  of  importance  that 
passes  in  connection  with  foreign  affairs,  leaving  it  to  them, 
at  their  discretion,  to  inform  the  Dominions'  Ministers 
either  by  mail  or  telegraph,  as  occasion  might  demand. 
There  are,  of  course,  certain  objections  to  the  adoption 
of  this  course.  There  would  be  a  risk  that  the  information 
communicated  to  the  representatives  would  speedily  find 
its  way  to  the  columns  of  some  colonial  newspaper,  and, 
little  as  I  believe  in  the  existence  of  any  Foreign  Office 
secrets  which  cannot  at  the  proper  time  be  divulged  with- 
out doing  the  least  harm,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  cases 
might  well  occur  in  which  premature  disclosures  might 
cause  much  inconvenience  and  even  be  seriously  hurtful 
to  the  public  interest.  This  risk  would,  however,  have  to 
be  faced.  It  is  not,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  weighed  in  the 
balance  against  the  advantages  which  would  accrue  under 
the  proposed  plan.  It  would,  of  course,  have  to  be  fully 
understood  that  no  papers  communicated  by  the  Foreign 
Office  to  the  Dominions  Governments  should  be  presented 
to  their  respective  Parliaments  without  British  consent 
having    been  previously  obtained. 

If  this  measure  were  not  deemed  sufficient,  a  furtbeir 
development  in  the  same  direction  might  be  found  by  estab- 
lishing an  Imperial  Council,  to  sit  in  London,  composed  of 
delegates  appointed  by  the  Dominions  and  of  such  British 
Ministers  as  it  might  be  thought  desirable  to  associate 
with  them.  This  body  would  have  to  be  solely  consulta- 
tive and  advisory.  There  would,  in  Mr.  Asquith's  phrase, 
be  no  question  of  "  sharing  authority."  The  British 
Government,  and  the  British  Government  alone,  would  in 
each  case  have  to  decide.  But,  if  an  Imperial  Council 
were  established,  the  British  Ministers,  before  they  came 
to  any  decision,  would  be  enlightened  as  to  the  views 
held  by  the  Dominions  Governments.  This  would  assuredly 
be  a  very  great  advantage.  The  proposal  is  open  to  two 
objections — one  British  and  the  other  colonial.  The  British 
objection  consists  in  the  fear  that,  by  the  establishment 
of  an   Imperial   Council,  the  powers  and  independence  of 


36  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP. 

the  existing  Cabinet  would  be  impaired.  It  is  urged  that, 
by  the  creation  of  the  already  existing  Committee  of 
Imperial  Defence,  a  sort  of  Cabinet  wdthin  the  Cabinet 
has  been  formed,  and  that  this  has  caused  much  incon- 
venience. It  is  for  those  who  have  had  practical  experi- 
ence in  the  working  of  the  system  to  say  to  what  an  extent 
the  alleged  inconveniences  have  been  of  a  serious  nature. 
I  cannot  help  thinking  that,  if  they  have  arisen,  their 
occurrence  might  be  obviated  by  an  improved  organization 
which  ought  to  be  able  to  insure  hearty  co-operation 
between  two  separate  but  closely  connected  bodies.  The 
colonial  objection  is  of  a  wholly  different  character.  Would 
the  responsible  Ministers  of  the  Dominions  and  their  electors 
be  prepared  to  delegate  their  powers  and  to  leave  a  certain 
amount  of  discretion  in  the  hands  of  their  London  repre- 
sentatives ?  I  cannot  say.  The  matter  is  one  for 
Australians,  New  Zealanders,  Canadians,  and  South  Africans 
to  decide  for  themselves.  If,  however,  I  am  correctly 
informed,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  their  consent 
to  any  such  delegation  as  that  which  is  suggested  could 
be  obtained.  All  that  can  be  said  at  present,  however, 
is  that  if  after  the  war  a  Conference  is  summoned  to 
consider  this  and  cognate  matters,  one  of  the  first  duties 
of  the  British  Ministers  would  appear  to  be  to  elicit  an 
expression  of  opinion  on  this  point. 

The  second  alternative  to  which  I  have  alluded  above 
involves  a  far  more  drastic  reform.  It  is  that  an  Imperial 
Cabinet  and  an  Imperial  Parliament  should  be  created, 
which  would  deal  with  all  the  affairs  connected  with  the 
Empire  as  a  whole,  that  in  this  Cabinet  the  Foreign  Office, 
the  Admiralty,  the  War  Office,  the  India  Office,  and  the 
Crown  Colony  side  of  the  Colonial  Office  should  be  repre- 
sented, that  a  Ministry  should  be  created  to  deal  with  Imperial 
finance,  and  that  the  present  British  Parliament  should  in 
reality  become  a  Home  Rule  Parliament,  which  would  only 
deal  with  the  local  affairs  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Many 
high  authorities,  such  as  Mr.  Curtis  and  Mr.  Basil  Worsfold, 
who  have  paid  special  attention  to  this  subject,  favour 
this  idea.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  plan  is  theoretically 
sound,  and  that  it  carries  out  the  principle  of  Federation 
to  its  logical  conclusion.  But  is  it  capable  of  execution? 
No  answer  can  be  given  to  this  question  until  the  whole 
scheme  is  formulated  and  presented  in  such  detail  as  to 
enable  all  concerned  to  form  a  matured  opinion  as  to  its 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION  37 

merits  and  demerits.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  the 
obstacles  to  be  encountered  in  devising  a  workable  plan 
of  this  sort  are  very  formidable.  Of  these,  perhaps  the 
most  serious  is  to  discover  some  principle  upon  which 
representation  in  the  Imperial  Parliament  should  be  based. 
Are  the  numbers  to  be  sent  to  the  Parliament  by  each 
unit  of  the  Empire  to  be  decided  with  reference  to  com- 
parative wealth,  or  population,  or  relative  naval  and  military 
strength  ?  Whatever  basis  is  adopted  it  is  certain  that  the 
result,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  must  be  to  give  an 
enormously  preponderating  voice  to  the  representatives  of 
the  United  Kingdom.  Would  the  overseas  democracies 
be  prepared  to  acquiesce  in  such  a  situation  ?  I  cannot 
say.  It  would  be  for  them  to  decide.  Then,  again,  is 
the  decision  of  a  majority  to  be  final  ?  Is  each  unit  of 
the  Empire  to  be  bound  by  the  votes  of  the  collective 
body,  or,  in  case  of  dissent,  is  it  to  be  allowed  subsequent 
freedom  of  action  ?  Are  decisions  in  such  vital  matters 
as  peace  and  war  to  be  unanimous  ?  The  idea  is  incon- 
ceivable. Such  a  system  would  reproduce  all  the  political 
anarchy  caused  by  the  exercise  of  the  Liberum  veto  in 
the  old  Polish  Diet.  These,  and  a  number  of  other  ques- 
tions of  a  scarcely  less  complex  character,  would  have 
to  be  most  carefully  considered  before  any  opinion  can  be 
formed  on  the  expediency  or  practicability  of  the  project. 
It  would,  I  venture  to  think,  be  a  mistake  to  be  unduly 
daunted  by  the  obvious  difificulties  which  will  have  to  be 
encountered  in  devising  a  plan.  Personally,  although  I  am 
strongly  convinced  that  some  changes  should,  if  they  are 
at  all  possible,  be  made,  I  am  incUned  to  think  that, 
looking  to  the  extreme  complexity  of  the  subject  and  to 
the  great  importance  of  avoiding  a  false  step,  it  would 
be  wise  for  all  concerned  to  proceed  very  cautiously  and 
tentatively,  to  be  satisfied  for  the  time  being  with  dealing 
with  the  comparatively  easy  subject  of  somewhat  closer 
association  in  executive  matters,  and  then  to  see  how  the 
revised  system  works  before  proceeding  to  reforms  of  a 
more  drastic  and  far-reaching  description.  But  I  speak 
under  correction.  It  may  be  that  others  who  approach 
the  subject  with  greater  knowledge  and  who  can  speak 
with  greater  authority  upon  it  than  myself  tnay  be  able 
to  devise  some  unobjectionable  plan  of  a  more  satisfac- 
tory and  comprehensive  description,  which  would  be  capable 
of  immediate  adoption.      The   matter   should   certainly  be 


38  EMPIRE   AND    CITIZENSHIP 

fully  discussed  and  the  relative  merits  of  the  rival  plans 
carefully  examined.  Until  this  is  done,  it  will  be  well 
to  suspend  final  judgment  as  regards  the  merits  of  any 
particular  scheme.  In  any  case,  it  would  seem  desirable, 
even  if  no  more  important  changes  be  made,  to  arrange 
that  the  Imperial  Conference  should,  for  the  future,  meet 
every  two  years,  instead  of,  as  at  present,  at  intervals  of 
four  years.  Thus,  the  statesmen  both  of  the  United  King- 
dom and  of  the  Dominions  would  more  frequently  be 
brought  in  close  contact  with  each  other.  They  would 
be  able  mutually  to  exchange  views.  The  result  could 
not  be  otherwise  than  beneficial. 

The  case  of  India  is  also  of  the  greatest  importance. 
It  differs  very  materially  from  that  of  the  self-governing 
Dominions.  I  cannot  attempt  to  deal  with  it  fully  at 
present.  That  some  reforms  will  have  to  be  made  after 
the  war  in  the  methods  under  which  India  is  at  present 
governed  is  both  possible  and  probable.  The  general 
direction  which  those  forms  may  profitably  take  was  indi- 
cated in  a  dispatch  of  the  Government  of  India,  written  in 
December   191 1,  which  contains  the  following  passage: — 

"  The  only  possible  solution  of  the  difficulty  would  appear 
to  be  gradually  to  give  the  Provinces  a  larger  measure  of 
self-government,  until  at  last  India  would  consist  of  a 
number  of  administrations,  autonomous  in  all  provincial 
affairs,  with  the  Government  of  India  above  them  all,  and 
possessing  power  to  interfere  in  case  of  misgovernment, 
but  ordinarily  restricting  their  functions  to  matters  of 
Imperial   concern." 

I  am  very  clearly  of  opinion  that  India  is  not  yet  ripe 
for  complete  self-government  in  the  sense  in  which  that 
term  is  used  in  the  Dominions.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  Egypt  and  the  Soudan.  It  would  at  present  be 
altogether  premature  to  discuss  the  desirability  of  bringing 
either  of  these  two  countries  within  the  full  scope  of  a 
general  scheme  for  the  Federation  of  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER    II 

The  State  and  the  Citizen 

By    bishop   WELLDON 

Man  is,  as  Aristotle  says,  a  political  or  a  social  animal 
(iroXiTiKov  tiwov).  It  is  to  him  a  natural  impossibility 
that  he  should  live  alone.  As  a  human  being,  he  stands 
immediately  in  relation  to  other  human  beings  who  are 
like  himself.  No  sooner  do  he  and  they  meet  than  a 
community  of  interest  or  service  arises,  and  a  primitive 
association  is  formed  ;  "  the  companions  of  the  meal -tub  " 
or  "of  the  hearthstone,"  '  if  they  were  the  first  persons  who 
entered  into  a  simple  partnership,  laid  the  foundations  of 
all  human  society.  They  were  the  original  parents  of  the 
city  or  the  State. 

The  Greek  thinkers,  such  as  Aristotle  and  his  master 
Plato,  who  traced  the  beginning  of  society  to  the  common 
advantage  which  two  or  more  human  beings  enjoy,  when 
each  of  them  contributes  to  the  other  something  which  he 
can  best  supply  and  which  the  other  or  others  cannot  supply 
so  well,  if  indeed  at  all,  were  the  first  political  economists. 
They  saw  clearly  that  men  living  and  acting  in  combina- 
tion can  accomplish  far  more  than  is  possible,  if  every 
man  lives  or  tries  to  live  in  independence  of  other  men. 
They  saw,  too,  that  men  who  unite  to  make  life  possible 
or  easy  continue  in  union  to  make  it  happy  and  prosperous. 
The  association  exists  to  ensure  not  life  only  but  a  good 
life  {yiyvofxivT]  fxlv  ovv  tov  Z,riv  IWictv  ovcra  St  rov  tv  Z,r]v).'^ 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  human  society,  as  it  amplifies, 
proves  to  be  greater  not  only  than  any  individual  who  is  a 
member  of  it,  but  than  all  its  members  taken  together. 
The  individual,  indeed,  in  becoming  a  member  of  society, 
loses   something    of   his   own   freedom.      There  is  a   sense 

'  Aristotle,  "  Politics,"  i,  2,  5.  »  Ibid.,  i,  2,  8. 

?9 


40  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

in  which  a  savage  is  freer  than  a  civilized  man.  But  law 
is  not  the  antithesis  to  liberty  ;  it  is  the  guarantee,  and 
the  only  guarantee,  of  full  liberty.  For  civilization  affords 
men  the  opportunity  not  only  of  enjoying  greater  benefits, 
but  of  attaining  larger  and  higher  objects,  than  are  possible 
in  a  state  of  barbarism.  The  individual  gains  or  may  gain 
more  by  claiming  less.  His  self-restraint  is  the  condition 
of  his  self-satisfaction.     As  Goethe  says:  — 

"  In  der  Beschrankung  zeigt  sich  erst  der  Meister, 
Und  das  Gesetz  nur  kann  uns  Freiheit  geben.* 

Thus  the  relation  of  the  aggregate  society  to  the  indi- 
viduals who  compose  it  becomes  at  once  a  disputable 
question.  Does  the  State  exist  for  the  individual,  or  does 
the  individual  exist  for  the  State  ?  Is  it  the  service  which 
the  society  can  render  to  its  members,  or  the  service 
which  the  members  can  render  to  their  society,  that 
is  the  dominant  factor  in  municipal  and  national  life  ? 
Upon  the  answers,  given  explicitly  or  implicitly  to 
these  questions,  has  depended  the  history  of  civilized 
mankind. 

If  it  were  necessary  or  desirable  to  enunciate  a  broad 
generalization,  it  might  be  said  that  in  the  pre-Christian 
world  the  law  was  the  supremacy  of  the  State,  but  that  in 
the  Christian  world  it  has  been  the  supremacy  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Yet  the  Christian  world  has  not  been  exempt 
from  reactionary  or  retrogressive  movements,  and  among 
these  movements  the  most  conspicuous  has  been  in  modern 
Europe  the  history  of  the  German  Empire. 

It  would  appear  that  in  ancient  Greece  and  in  ancient 
Rome,  the  two  coimtries  from  which  European  .civiliza- 
tion has  mainly  sprung,  the  State  (iroXig  or  civitas)  was 
the  object  of  general  homage.  The  contrast  between 
civilization  and  barbarism  was  strongly  felt.  Everybody 
who  was  not  a  Greek  was,  by  the  Greeks,  adjudged  to 
be  a  barbarian.  Everybody  who  was  not  a  citizen  of 
Rome  was,  by  the  Romans,  held  to  be  devoid  of  civic 
rights.  The  city  or  the  State  was  the  author  of  the  insti- 
tutions and  instruments  by  which  life,  as  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans  alike  regarded  it,  was  made  worth  living.  It  was 
owing  to  the  State  that  the  individual  citizen  could  live  and 
move  in   safety,    could  possess   and   enjoy   such   wealth  as 

'  "  Was  wir  bringen,"  Auftritt  19, 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  41 

he  had  acquired,  could  make  the  best  of  himself  physically 
and  aesthetically,  could  refine  his  intellect  and  use  his  leisure 
and  his  culture  as  stepping-stones  to  a  higher  life.  He 
was  therefore  a  debtor  to  the  State  ;  and  whatever  claim 
the  State  might  make  upon  him,  whether  in  the  way  of 
military  service  or  of  pecuniary  tribute,  it  was  his  absolute 
duty  to  satisfy  ;  for  at  the  best  he  could  never  hope  to 
discharge  the  full  obligation  which  rested  upon  his  whole 
life.  When  Lord  Palmerston,  in  his  famous  speech  upon 
the  case  of  Don  Pacifico,  quoted  the  formula  "  Civis 
Romanus  sum  "  as  a  model  or  earnest  of  British  citizen- 
ship, it  was  the  overshadowing,  protective  power  of  the 
State,  strengthening,  as  it  were,  and  dignifying  all  its 
citizens,  that  gave  a  proud  significance  to  his  words.  But 
there  were  two  circumstances  which,  in  Greek  or  Roman 
eyes,  invested  the  State  with  an  unique  authority. 

One  was  the  institution  of  slavery.  It  is  difficult,  in 
the  modem  world,  to  estimate  what  was  in  the  ancient 
world  the  magnitude  of  slavery.  But  two  striking  figures 
may  be  cited.  Athenasus  states,  as  the  result  of  an 
investigation  made  by  Demetrius  Phalereus,  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century  B.C.  the  true  Athenians 
in  Attica  were  21,000,  the  Metics  {/neToiKoi)  10,000, 
and  the  slaves  400,000.'  Marquardt  has  estimated  the 
population  of  Rome  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era 
as  1,610,000,  including  women,  children,  and  foreigners,  and 
of  this  total  number  the  slave  population  as  900,000.2 
Christianity  changed  at  once,  not  the  institution  of  slavery 
but  the  position  of  the  slave.  It  made  him,  as  St.  Paul 
says  in  his  Epistle  to  Philemon,  "  no  longer  a  servant, 
but  above  a  servant,  a  brother  beloved."  It  did  not 
abolish,  yet  it  mitigated,  slavery,  because  master  and  slave 
became  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  Thus  it  is  that  of  the  early 
Christians,  who  were  buried  in  the  catacombs,  no  one  is 
described  as  a  slave.  The  transformation  of  the  Roman 
"  familia  "  into  the  Christian  "  family  "  is  a  sign,  as  it 
is  a  measure,  of  the  social  revolution  wrought  by  Christ- 
ianity. It  is  sadly  true  that  slavery,  although  it  was  con- 
demned by  the  finest  and  noblest  Christian  spirits,  as 
universally  by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  lingered  for  many 
centuries  in  some  parts  of  Christendom.  Not  until  the 
year  1861  A.D.  did  Alexander,  the  Tsar  of  Russia,  emanci- 

'  "  Deipnosophist,"  bk.  vi.  ch.  103. 

'  "  A  Companion  to  Latin  Studies,"  vi.  4,  p.  354. 


'42  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

pate  the  five  million  serfs  in  his  mighty  empire.  Not 
until  1865  was  the  death -knell  of  slavery  sounded  in  the 
United  States  of  America  by  the  assassination  of  President 
Lin  oln.  It  was  of  him  that  the  American  poet  Bryant 
wrote  : — 

Thy  task  is  done  :  the  bond  are  free. 

We  bear  thee  to  an  honored  grave, 
Whose  proudest  monument  shall  be 

The  broken  fetters  of  the  slave. 

His  poem  "  On  the  Death  of  Lincoln  "  is  immediately 
followed  by  his  other  poem,  "  On  the  Death  of  Slavery." 
So  long  as  slavery  endured,  and,  still  more,  so  long  as 
the  slaves  were  a  majority  of  the  people  in  a  country  or  a 
city,  the  sentiment  of  individual  right  was  practically 
negligible,  in  comparison  with  the  power  of  the  State  over 
all  its  citizens.  Democracy  has  been  a  plant  of  slow 
growth  in  the  modern  world.  In  the  ancient  world  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  democracy.  The  most  democratic 
city  of  antiquity,  even  Athens  itself,  was  in  fact  a  narrow 
oligarchy.  It  was  only  through  the  Christian  conception 
of  the  soul,  and  its  relation  to  God,  that  democracy  dawned 
upon  the  world. 

To  the  condition  of  slavery  in  ancient  times  must  be 
added  the  long  national  habit  of  warfare.  An  ordered 
and  settled  peace  has  been  only  too  seldom  known  in 
civilized  and  Christian  Europe.  Among  the  nations  of 
antiquity  it  was  never  known.  No  political  constitution  in 
the  ancient  world  was  internally  or  externally  stable. 
Slavery  was  itself  an  abiding  peril  to  national  and  civil 
peace,  as  the  Servile  Wars  in  the  history  of  Rome  amply 
proved.  The  dread  of  revolution  or  insurrection  {(TTamg 
as  it  was  called  in  Greece)  brooded  as  a  haunting  fear  upon 
all  statesmen  and  administrators.  The  gates  of  the  Temple 
of  Janus  before  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Augustus  were 
seldom  closed.  But  amidst  wars  and  rumours  of  wars 
the  State  inevitably  asserts  itself.  It  calls  the  citizens 
to  arms  ;  it  disciplines  them  in  tactics  ;  it  enforces  duty, 
obedience,  subordination  ;  it  is,  or  it  feels  itself  to  be, 
the  custodian  of  interests  so  momentous  that  it  cannot 
recognize  or  tolerate  any  assertion  of  individualism  against 
them.  It  is  probable  that  the  nearest  parallel  to  the  modern 
Empire  of  Germany,  at  least  on  its  military  side,  would 
be  found  in  the  Empire  of  Rome,     For  an  empire  founded 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  43 

upon  force  is  naturally  hostile  to  freedom.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  some  such  pacific  influence  as  that  of  the  Christian 
Church  should  move  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  world, 
before  men  and  nations  of  men  could  believe,  even  as  a 
theory,  that  peace,  and  not  war,  is  the  natural  and  normal 
rule  of  human  life. 

There  is  a  third  element  which  has  largely  entered  into 
modem  European  civilization — the  Judaic.  But  Judaism 
was  a  theocracy  ;  and  under  a  theocracy  the  Government 
or  the  Constitution,  as  embodying  the  direct  will  of  God 
necessarily  exercises  a  controlling  influence  upon  the  actions, 
whether  great  or  small,  of  the  individual  citizen's  life. 
It  follows  that,  in  so  far  as  Europe  in  the  early  Christian 
centuries  derived  guidance  from  the  Bible,  and  particu- 
larly from  the  Old  Testament,  it  tended  to  emphasize  the 
prerogative  of  the  State  as  against  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  citizen. 

The  Church,  during  all  the  early  ages  of  her  history, 
was  the  great  equalizing  power  in  the  Christian  world. 
She  stood  over  against  the  State  as  a  rival — nay,  in  her 
own  eyes,  as  a  superior.  She  claimed  to  prescribe  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  State.  In  her  eyes 
sovereign  and  subject,  peer  and  peasant,  master  and  servant 
were  all  equal,  as  they  were  equal  before  God.  Salva- 
tion was  the  same  for  all,  and  it  must  be  won  by  all  on 
the  same  terms.  The  humblest  of  the  people,  if  he 
entered  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  became  ipso  facto 
invested  with  a  spiritual  power  which  gave  him  authority 
over  the  highest  and  the  noblest.  It  is  impossible  to  over- 
estimate the  service  so  rendered  by  the  Church  to  humanity. 
She,  and  she  alone,  inspired  the  principle  of  brotherhood 
and  charity  in  an  age  of  cruel  selfishness.  She  alone 
lifted  her  voice  against  the  oppression  of  the  mighty  ; 
she  alone  extended  her  shield  over  the  weak,  the  suff"ering, 
and  the  desolate.  She  created  and  consecrated  the  home, 
and  she  lent  her  sanction  to  the  sense  of  individual  value 
in  every  inmate  of  the  home. 

It  is  true  that  the  old  tendencies  of  human  nature  soon 
reasserted  themselves  within  the  Church.  She  does  not 
and  cannot  repress  them  ;  but,  if  they  reappear  in  defiance 
of  her  teaching,  it  is  she  who  suff"ers  discredit  for  them. 
Thus  persecution  is  a  natural  instinct  of  human  wickedness 
or  weakness.  It  is  not  limited  to  the  sphere  of  religion  ;  it 
permeates  all  life.     But,  when  it  becomes  religious  persecu- 


44  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

tion,  it  is  felt  to  be  especially  censurable,  as  it  conflicts 
with  the  spirit  or  character  of  religion  and  of  Christianity. 

It  is  an  heretic  that  makes  the  fire, 
Not  she  which  burns  in't.' 

So,  too,  tyranny,  or  monarchy,  as  it  had  been  estab- 
lished in  the  ancient  world,  may  have  been  inconsistent 
with  the  principles  of  Christianity.  But  it  survived  the 
conversion  of  the  Western,  as  of  the  Eastern,  world  from 
paganism  to  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Papacy,  as 
it  extended  and  augmented  its  power,  arrogated  to  itself 
all,  and  more  than  all,  the  authority  of  the  State.  It  is 
not,  indeed,  difficult  to  discern  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
conception  of  the  Church  some  of  the  elements  which  form, 
or  tend  to  form,  the  modern  Prussian  conception  of  the 
State.  There  is  the  same  subordination  of  all  interests — 
in  the  one  case  to  ecclesiastical,  in  the  other  to  political, 
authority.  There  is  the  same  repression  or  denial  of  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  liberty.  There  is,  or  there  has  been, 
the  same  willingness  to  use  force,  as  checking  and  thwart- 
ing the  dispositions  which  militate  against  the  efficiency  of 
the  whole.  Modern  Kaiserism  is  a  secularized  Papalism. 
Nor,  indeed,  does  the  practical  reverence  for  the  Kaiser 
differ  intrinsically  from  the  far  more  ancient  and  more 
logical  reverence  for  the  Pope. 

The  system  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  so  of  Western 
Christendom  generally,  tended  to  become  more  and  more 
monarchical.  Democracy,  as  it  is  understood  in  the  modern 
world,  dates  from  the  Reformation.  Although  democracy 
is  generally  regarded  as  political,  yet  in  its  origin,  like 
many  political  movements  or  systems,  it  was  spiritual.  It 
depended  upon  the  relation  of  the  individual  soul  to  God. 
Before  the  Reformation  it  was  only  through  the  long  avenue 
of  sacerdotal  powers,  of  theological  doctrines  and  eccle- 
siastical ceremonies,  that  the  soul  of  man  could  draw  near 
to  its  Maker.  Luther  swept  away  the  obstacles  which 
barred  the  immediate  access  of  the  soul  to  Christ  and 
God.  Liberty  of  conscience,  the  open  Bible,  the  very 
change  in  the  aspect  or  structure  of  the  churches,  were 
signs  of  the  spiritual  independence  which  the  Reformation 
asserted  for  humanity.  It  is  thus  that  the  Reformation 
is  the   abiding   test   of  the   principles   by   which   men   and 

'  Shakespeare,  "  The  Winter's  Tale,"  ii.  3, 146-7. 


I 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  45 

nations  of  men  guide  their  lives.  If  they  care  most 
for  discipline,  order,  and  perhaps  for  grace  and  peace, 
they  have  remained  or  become  Roman  Catholic.  If  they 
care  most  for  truth,  freedom,  and  charity,  they  have  chosen 
the  steep  and  stony  path  of  Protestantism. 

The  new  spirit  is  visible  all  along  the  line  of  the 
Elizabethan  era.  It  is  characteristic  of  Raleigh,  Gilbert, 
Drake,  and  Frobisher,  as  it  is  of  Shakespeare  and  Spenser. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  men  who  have  set  out,  in  the  faith  of 
their  own  strong  nature  and  purpose,  for  the  conquest  of 
new  worlds,  whether  territorial  or  spiritual.  In  most 
of  them,  or  in  nearly  all,  the  religious  spirit  survived  the 
revolt  against  the  Church  of  Rome.  They  were  Christians 
still,  but  they  were  Christians  in  virtue  of  argument,  not 
of  authority.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  triumph 
of  democratic  and  individualistic  sentiment  was  propor- 
tionate to  the  clearness  and  positiveness  of  the  Protestant 
creed.  The  Presbyterianism  of  John  Knox,  if  it  did  not 
create,  yet  consolidated  the  character  which  has  made  the 
Scotch  people  the  most  self-reliant  element  in  the  British 
Empire.  The  Puritan  Pilgrims  of  the  Mayflower  were 
not  unnaturally,  although  they  were  unconsciously,  the 
founders  of  the  greatest  Republic  upon  earth.  A  philosopher 
may  well  feel  surprise  at  discovering  that  anybody  living 
in  the  twentieth  century  should  be  prepared,  for  any 
imaginary  gain  of  cathoHcity  or  unity,  to  barter  the  spiritual 
liberty  which  his  forefathers  won  by  so  long  an  effort  and 
at  so  high  a  price. 

But,  as  often  happens,  the  underlying  principle  of 
Protestantism,  or  Puritanism,  was  slow  in  making  itself 
universally  felt.  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
is  the  Charter  of  the  United  States  of  America,  was 
drafted,  it  is  well  known,  by  Jefferson.  It  begins  by  assert- 
ing, as  a  self-evident  principle,  that  all  men  are  by  nature 
equal,  and  all  are  by  nature  free.  There  is  a  story  that, 
when  Jefferson  was  asked  how  he  reconciled  that  asser- 
tion with  the  existence  of  slavery,  he  confessed  himself 
unable  to  give  a  satisfactory  answer.  The  difference  of 
colour  has,  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries,  corresponded 
with  a  difference  of  social  or  political  status.  Whether 
the  word  "  men  "  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did, 
or  should,  include  women,  was  a  question  left,  and  perhaps 
intended  to  be  left,  in  uncertainty.  But  there  can  be  no 
doubt   that,   in   the    United   States    of   America   as    well   35 


46  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

in  the  European  world,  events  are  tending  towards  the 
equalization  of  manhood  and  womanhood  in  politics. 

Subject,  however,  to  these  considerable  limitations, 
democracy,  and  equality  as  its  natural  issue,  have,  in  the 
last  three  or  four  centuries,  become  more  and  more 
strikingly  the  axioms  of  modern  life.  For  circumstances 
have  insensibly  tended  to  lessen  or  narrow  the  differences 
between  one  class  and  another  in  the  same  community. 
The  gulf  between  the  peer  and  the  peasant  is  incommen- 
surable with  the  gulf  between  the  master  and  the  slave. 
Education  is  no  longer  the  property  of  the  few  ;  it  has 
descended  to  the  many  ;  and  the  humblest  labourer,  when 
he  reads  his  Sunday  newspaper,  can  inform  himself  as  easily 
as  a  statesman  or  professor  about  the  course  of  events 
all  over  the  world.  Wherever  political  suffrage  is  universal, 
or  nearly  universal,  the  theory  of  "  one  man  one  vote  " 
invests  each  citizen  with  the  same  influence  as  any  other 
citizen  upon  the  political  history  of  his  nation.  One 
strange  consequence  has  been  an  apparent  perversion  of 
the  moral  judgment.  Because  the  majority  of  votes  in 
the  House  of  Commons  or  in  an  election  decides  the  issue, 
it  has  been  assumed  that,  whatever  the  will  of  the  majority 
may  be,  it  must  be  right.  But  the  fact  that  votes,  if 
they  are  numerous  enough,  confer  power,  does  not  ensure 
or  imply  that  they  constitute  right.  Too  often  has  the 
minority  or  the  individual  been  the  representative  of  free- 
dom or  progress  ;  too  often  has  the  majority  sinned 
against  the  light.  Yet  the  working-man,  however  ignorant 
he  may  really  be,  has,  in  virtue  of  his  education  or  his 
political  enfranchisement,  been  led  to  think  that  he  is  as 
good  and  as  wise  as  any  one  else.  Even  in  modem  war- 
fare it  is  number  which  tells.  The  day  when  the  issue 
of  war  could  be  decided  by  heroic  individual  valour  has 
passed  away.  One  man  is  like  another  ;  and  the  nation 
which  can  send  the  largest  number  of  its  citizens  into 
the  field,  if  it  can  adequately  arm  them  and  train  them, 
is  the  nation  to  which  the  promise  of  victory  belongs  in 
warfare  to-day.  All  these  are  elements  in  the  changing 
conception  of  life  ;  they  all  foster  a  general  impatience  of 
subordination  or  control,  a  claim  to  participate  in  all  that 
makes  life  happy  or  comfortable. 

The  result  has  been  manifest  in  various  ways.  It  has 
shown  itself  in  the  ever -increasing  demand  of  the  peopl€} 
upon   the    State    or   the    Government.      Sometimes   in    the 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  47 

early  days  of  modern  democracy  they  were  content  with 
claiming  equality  before  the  law.  In  recent  days  they 
have,  under  the  title  of  socialism  or  communism,  claimed 
the  assimilation  of  all  classes  upon  one  level  of  faculty 
and  opportunity.  Sometimes,  again,  the  less  highly 
placed  or  highly  paid  classes  have  demanded  free  educa- 
tion, and  free,  or  nearly  free,  insurance  against  accidents. 
In  times  of  exceptional  stress  they  have  demanded  for 
their  children  free  meals  and  even  free  medicines.  The 
State  has  become  more  and  more  socialistic.  More  and 
more  it  has  humoured  and  favoured  the  proletariat.  While 
it  has,  justly  or  unjustly,  increased  the  burden  of  taxa- 
tion upon  the  rich,  it  has  pretty  well  relieved  the  poor  of 
all  direct,  and  of  much  indirect,  taxation.  The  people  have 
been  taught  that  they  may  gratify  their  own  tastes,  as 
in  marriage,  without  restraint,  and  that,  if  difficulty  or 
suffering  falls  upon  them,  the  State  must  relieve  it.  The 
State  has  become  their  foster-mother.  It  has  been  thq 
unfailing  resource  upon  which  they  have  fallen  back  as 
a  remedy  for  their  own  faults  and  follies.  There  has 
been,  in  fact,  a  demoralization  of  the  people  ;  and  among 
the  persons  responsible  for  it  none  have  been  more  con- 
spicuous offenders  against  economical  and  social  laws  than 
the  politicians,  who  have  vied  one  with  another  in  teaching 
the  people,  each  for  the  ends  of  his  party,  to  use  their 
votes,  not  in  the  interest  of  justice  or  equity  but  for  the 
assertion  and  advancement  of  their  own  privileges,  against 
the  other  parties.  It  can  be  no  wonder  that,  even  under 
the  stress  of  war,  citizens,  who  have  long  been  schooled 
in  subservience  to  party,  were,  at  first,  slow  to  learn  the 
lesson,  and  to  exhibit  the  spirit,  of  patriotism.  The 
Church,  indeed,  has  taught,  or  professed  to  teach,  duty — 
duty  to  God  and  to  man.  But  that  sublime  principle  of 
English  life — the  watchword  which  inspired  Nelson  at 
Trafalgar  and  Wellington  at  Waterloo — has  been  wellnigh 
deadened  by  the  noisy  cries  of  conflicting  self-interests. 

Yet  the  question,  What  can  I  get  from  the  Staite  ?  is 
essentially  poor  and  mean  in  comparison  with  the  question, 
What  can  I  give  to  the  State  ?  For  it  ignores  the  citizen's 
primary  obligation  to  the  State  which  has  been,  in  a  large 
measure,  the  source  of  his  personal  and  social  happiness. 
It  concentrates  his  desires  and  interests  upon  himself,  instead 
of  extending  them  upon  a  wide  range  of  offices  and  respon- 
sibilities which   reach  beyond  and   above  himself.     There 


48  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

can  be  little  doubt  that  in  British  schools,  and  especially 
in  the  elementary  schools,  patriotism  has  not  been  incul- 
cated, as  it  might  have  been,  and  should  have  been,  upon 
youthful  hearts.  How  strong  the  effect  of  patriotic  teach- 
ing in  youth  may  be,  is  exemplified  by  countries  like  France 
and  Japan.  Even  in  Germany  the  spirit  of  patriotism, 
clouded  as  it  is  and  often  distorted  by  national  pride  and 
selfishness,  still  bums  with  an  impressive  lustre.  The 
ancient  Universities  and  Public  Schools  of  England  have 
nobly  responded  to  the  call  of  arms.  It  is  with  a  splendid 
self-devotion  that  their  sons  have  flung  away  their  lives 
in  the  war.  If  elsewhere  some  hesitation  was  shown  at 
first,  it  evidently  arose  from  ignorance  or  misimderstanding 
of  the  relation  in  which  the  citizen  stands  to  the  State. 

Modem  German,  or  Prussian,  militarism  is  not  indeed 
rightly  appreciated,  except  as  a  reaction  against  the  indi- 
vidualistic tendency  of  life  in  Great  Britain.  The  Germans 
had  formed  the  opinion  that  Great  Britain,  as  an  Imperial 
Power,  was  decadent,  if  not  actually  dying.  It  was  not 
in  itself  a  wholly  unreasonable  opinion.  Empires,  one  after 
another,  have,  in  the  ages  of  history,  been  born  and 
flourished,  have  reached  the  acme  of  their  might  ;  and  then 
have  gradually  waned,  decayed,  and  perished.  Such  has 
been  the  fate  of  all  modern  empires — the  Spanish,  the 
Portuguese,  the  French,  the  Dutch — except  the  British 
Empire.  Whether  the  British  Empire  alone  among  the 
empires  of  the  world  will  survive  or  not,  is  a  question 
lying  in  the  womb  of  futurity.  But  the  Germans  argued, 
or  assumed,  that  the  apparently  universal  law  of  empires 
would  fulfil  itself,  soon  or  late,  in  the  British  Empire. 

They  held  that  Great  Britain  had  lost  the  faculty  of 
government.  It  could  not,  as  they  thought,  control  its 
Colonies  ;  it  could  not  control  India  ;  it  could  not  even 
control  Ireland.  The  spiritual  forces,  sympathy,  affection, 
loyalty,  by  which  peoples  are  held  together,  were  unrecog- 
nized, and  probably  unimagined,  by  the  Germans.  No 
revelation  of  the  war  can  have  been  more  surprising  to 
them  than  the  spirit  which  has  been  displayed  by  South 
Africa.  It  was  their  confident  expectation  that  the  Colonies 
and  Dependencies  of  the  British  Empire  would  rise  against 
the  Mother  Country,  so  soon  as  she  was  engaged  in  perilous 
warfare.  They  have  succeeded  only,  against  their  own 
will,  in  riveting  the  Empire  by  bonds  which  can  never 
be  broken.     It  is  certain  that,  when  the  war  is  over.  Great 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  49 

Britain  and  the  British  Empire  will  be  stronger,  not  only 
by  force  of  arms  and  by  the  union  of  hearts,  but  in  the 
respect  of  civilized  mankind,  than  they  have  ever  been 
before. 

Yet  the  Germans  thought  they  could  discern  the  signs 
of  British  impotency,  as  much  in  the  relation  of  the  State 
to  its  citizens  as  in  the  relation  of  the  Dominions  beyond 
the  seas  to  the  Mother  Country.  They  mistook  tolerance 
for  degeneracy.  They  watched,  with  sinister  eyes,  what 
they  thought  to  be  the  revolt  of  various  parties  or  interests 
against  authority.  It  seemed  to  them  that,  if  Great  Britain 
could  not  rule  the  Labour  Party,  the  Suffragist  Party,  the 
Anti -Vaccinationists,  and  the  other  conscientious  objectors, 
she  must  have  lost  all  political  and  martial  efficiency.  It 
is  only  right  to  admit  that  the  German  estimate  of  Great 
Britain  might  not  have  proved  so  hopelessly  wrong,  had 
it  not  ignored  the  moral  and  spiritual  motives  which  are, 
after  all,  the  sovereign  principles  of  human  nature.  For 
Great  Britain  in  the  days  before  the  war  was  imdoubtedly 
less  effective  and  impressive  in  action  than  she  would  have 
been,  if  her  political  system  had  not  rendered  her  Ministers 
of  State  unwilling,  or  unable,  to  take  cogent  action  against 
those  persons  or  classes  which  would  sacrifice,  if  they  could, 
the  national  supremacy  to  their  several  and  separate 
interests.  KuUur,  as  the  Germans  call  it,  is  efficiency  ; 
and  if  efficiency,  attained  by  any  means  and  at  any  cost, 
is  the  true  object  of  a  State,  the  Germans  are,  and  have 
proved  themselves  to  be,  more  efficient  than  any  other 
people.  For  they  judged,  not  without  some  reason,  that 
individualism  was,  or  ought  to  be,  the  ruin  of  Great  Britain, 
and  they  determined  that  it  should  not  be  the  ruin  of 
Germany.  '  M 

It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  process  by  which  the 
German  worship  of  efficiency  assumed  its  present  character. 

The  State  was  the  idol  set  up  before  adoring  minds  in 
the  universities  and  schools  of  Germany.  The  Germans, 
young  and  old  alike,  were  taught  and  forced  to  bow  down 
before  the  golden  image  of  the  State.  But  the  State 
rested  upon  force  ;  the  embodiment  of  force  was  the  Army  ; 
and  the  State  and  the  Army  have  in  Germany  been  two 
names  for  one  body.  The  State  on  its  military  side  was 
the  Army  ;  the  Army  on  its  dvil  side  was  the  State.  All 
disloyalty  to  the  Army  was  high  treason.  The  Kaiser  was 
the  head  both  of  the  State  and  of  the  Army  ;   and  German 


so  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

writers,  like  German  statesmen,  have  generally  held  that 
the  Government  of  Germany  must  be  monarchical,  as 
monarchy  was  the  governmental  system  which  would  best 
guarantee  efficiency,  and,  above  all,  efficiency  in  war. 

It  is  curious  to  notice  how  human  nature,  if  it  is  checked 
and  bound  on  one  side,  breaks  out  on  other  sides.  The 
freedom  denied  to  highly  educated  Germans  in  the  domain 
of  politics  was  accorded  to  them  in  the  domain  of 
philosophy  and  theology.  Extravagance  of  speculative 
thought  on  all  subjects  outside  politics  was  answered  by 
its  close  circumscription  in  the  political  sphere.  As  a 
modem  English  writer  has  said,  it  was  legitimate  to  deny 
the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  to  deny  the  divinity  of 
the  Kaiser  was  lese  majeste.  Let  me  quote  from  German 
writers  some  few  passages  as  showing  the  modem  German 
view  of  the  State,  the  Army,  and  the  Kaiser. 

Nietzsche  is  the  originator  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Superman.  It  may,  or  may  not,  be  true  that  he  owed  his 
doctrine  to  the  Darwinian  theory  of  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence and  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  But  from  the  doctrine 
of  the  Superman  there  was  only  a  step  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Superstate  ;  and  that  Superstate,  as  all  Germans  assumed, 
must,  and  could,  be  Germany  alone.  In  public,  as  in 
private  life,  Nietzsche  identified  not  only  happiness,  but 
virtue,  with  power.  The  following  is  a  passage  taken  from 
his  "  Antichrist  ":  — 

What  is  good  ?  All  that  increases  the  feeling  of  power,  will  to  power,  power 
itself  in  man. 

What  is  happiness  ?  The  feeling  that  power  increases,  that  resistance  is 
overcome. 

Not  contentedness  but  more  power  ;  not  peace  at  any  price  but  warfare  : 
not  virtue  but  capacity  (virtue  in  the  Renaissance  style,  virtue  free  from  any 
moralic  acid).' 

It  was  left  to  Treitschke  to  assert  the  supremacy  of 
the  State — i.e.  of  the  German  State,  the  assumed  Super- 
state— over  the  whole  life,  moral  as  well  as  political  and 
practical,  of  individual  citizens.  His  teaching  is  so  well 
known  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  quote  more  instances 
of  it  than  the  following  : — 

The  moment  the  State  (he  says)  calls  :  "  Myself  and  my  existence  are  now  at 
stake  ! "  social  self-seeking  must  fall  back  and  every  party  hate  be  silent.  The 
individual  must  forget  his  own  ego  and  feel  himself  a  member  of  the  whole  :  he 
must  recognize  what  a  nothing  his  life  is  in  comparison  with  the  general  welfare.' 

*  S  «.  "  "  Selections  from  Treitschke's  Lectures  on  Politics,"  p.  23. 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  51 

And  again  : — 

Since  the  State  is  power,  it  can  obviously  draw  all  human  action  within  its 
scope,  so  long  as  that  action  arises  from  the  will  which  regulates  the  outer  lives 
of  men,  and  belongs  to  their  visible  common  existence,  Historical  experience, 
examined  fairly  and  without  prejudice,  teaches  us  that  the  State  can  overshadow 
practically  the  whole  of  a  people's  life.  It  will  dominate  it  to  the  precise  extent 
in  which  it  is  in  a  position  to  do  so.* 

Such  a  book  as  Dr.  White's  "  America  and  Germany  " 
is  replete  with  passages  which  show  how  the  worship  of 
the  State  has  entered  as  an  axiom  into  the  political  thought 
of  German  professors  and  literary  men. 2  "  In  the  German 
view,"  says  the  late  Professor  Miinsterberg>  "  the  State  is 
not  for  the  individuals,  but  the  individuals  for  the  State." 
"  To  the  Germans,"  says  Francke,  "  the  State  is  a  spiritual, 
collective  personality,  leading  a  life  of  its  own,  beyond  the 
lives  of  individuals,  and  its  aim  is,  not  the  protection  and 
the  happiness  of  individuals,  but  the  making  of  a  nobler  type 
of  man,  and  the  achievement  of  high  excellence  in  all  the 
departments  of  life." 

Not  to  multiply  quotations,  the  truth,  as  Germans  have 
lately  conceived  it  to  be,  is  well  summed  up  by  the  author 
of  Germany's  War  Mania  "  : — 

To  modern  German  writers  the  State  is  a  much  more  tremendous  entity  than 
it  is  to  Englishmen  or  Americans.  It  is  a  supreme  power;  with  a  sort  of  mystic 
sanctity,  a  power  conceived  of,  as  it  were,  self-created ;  a  force  altogether 
distinct  from,  and  superior  to,  the  persons  who  compose  it.3 

The  notorious  military  incident  at  Zabern  was  illumi- 
nating as  a  lightning-flash,  and  its  significance  has  been 
enhanced  by  the  events  which  followed  it.  Historians  like 
Treitschke  or  Delbriick  insist  as  strongly  upon  the  supreme 
virtue  of  the  Army  as  military  writers  like  Clausewitz  and 
Bernhardi.  According  to  Miinsterberg,  the  men  who  have 
achieved  the  marvellous  progress  of  German  civilization 
have  acted  in  the  conviction  that  "  the  military  spirit  is 
a  splendid  training  for  cultural  efficiency."  But  as  the 
worship  of  the  State  leads  to  the  worship  of  the  Army, 
so  the  worship  of  the  Army  leads  to  the  worship  of  the 
Kaiser.  "  The  idea  of  the  Emperor  is  that  he  is  the  symbol 
of  the  State  as  a  whole,  independent  of  the  will  of  the 
individuals,  and,  therefore,  independent  of  any  elections." 
He  is  "  the  incarnation  of  active  and  disciplined  Germany." 

'  "  Politics,"  translated  by  Blanche  Dugdalc  and  Torben  de  Bille,  vol.  i.  p.  62. 
'  pp.  174  sqq.  3  p.  10. 


52  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

A  careful  American  observer  has  recently  declared  that 
"  the  German  people  are  as  inseparable  from  the  Kaiser 
as  we,  in  America,  are  from  our  Constitution."  He  adds 
that  *'  the  Social  Democratic  Party  in  Germany  is,  itself, 
organized  upon  the  principle  of  submission  to  the  monarchy, 
and  does  not  in  the  least  resemble  the  Democratic  Party 
in  the  American  sense  of  the  word  " — a.  statement  true 
enough  if  the  submission  is  understood  to  be  not  voluntary 
but  enforced. 

It  is  upon  the  ground  of  Kultur  or  efficiency  that  the 
Germans  justify  their  system  of  government.  But  that 
from  such  a  system  flow  certain  consequences  of  grave 
and  serious  moment  for  humanity  they  do  not  attempt 
to  deny. 

The  State  is,  in  their  eyes,  supreme.  It  can  do  no 
wrong  ;  it  can  oflFend  no  moral  law  ;  for  duty  to  the  State 
is  the  climax  of  morality.  It  can  excuse  no  disloyalty  or 
indifference.  It  claims,  and  it  is  entitled  to  claim,  the 
subordination  of  every  citizen,  and  in  every  citizen  of  his 
whole  nature,  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  Neither  above,  nor 
beside,  the  State  is  there,  nor  can  there  be,  anything  which 
a  citizen  can  justly  regard  in  comparison  with  the  State 
itself.  It  would  be  amusing,  if  it  were  not  distressing, 
to  observe  how  German  thought  naturally  rises  above  the 
individual,  above  the  family,  above  the  town,  above  the  city 
to  the  State  ;  but  at  the  State  it  stops  dead.  It  takes 
no  account  of  Europe  or  the  world,  humanity  or  God.  It 
takes,  or  it  seems  to  take,  no  account  of  other  States  than 
the  German.  No  feature  of  German  political  speculation 
is  more  remarkable  than  the  narrow  limits  within  which 
it  moves.  Even  in  the  domain  of  philosophy  and  theology 
German  writers  have  lately  exhibited,  and  have  felt  no 
apparent  shame  in  exhibiting,  a  curious  ignorance  of  much 
that  has  been  thought  and  taught  outside  Germany.  But 
in  political  history  they  think  of  Germany  alone.  "The 
real  hypothesis  of  all  their  reasoning  is  an  exclusive 
nationalism.  We  read  of  Deutsche  Treue,  Deutsche  Tap- 
ferkeit,  Deutsche  Kultur,  until  we  begin  to  realize  that 
the  German  mind  lives  in  an  exclusively  German  world 
of  its  own.  The  wind  of  the  spirit  that  blows  freely 
through  Europe  stops  at  the  Rhine,  and  a  new  wind  of 
the  German  spirit  takes  its  place."  » 

*  "  Nietzsche  and  Treitschke.    The  Worship  of  Power  in  Modern  Germany," 
by  Ernest  Barker,  pp.  19,  20. 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  53 

No  authoritative  German  writer  since  Kant  has,  appar- 
ently, asked  why  England  or  France  or  Russia  should 
not,  in  international  relations,  make  precisely  the  same 
claims  as  Germany,  and  how,  if  such  claims  are  made  by 
all  the  great  States,  they  can  be  adjusted  without  an  un- 
ceasing warfare  between  them,  until,  at  last,  all  the  States 
are  absolutely  merged  in  the  one  supreme,  victorious  State. 
That  State,  as  the  Germans  necessarily  anticipate,  will  be 
Germany  itself.  For  the  essential  superiority  of  the 
German  people  to  all  other  peoples,  as  of  the  German  State 
to  all  other  States,  is  an  axiom  underlying  much,  if  not 
all,  that  German  publicists  and  philosophers  have  lately 
written  upon  the  history  and  the  destiny  of  mankind. 

The  worship  of  the  State,  and  of  the  German  State,  is 
admittedly  inconsistent  with  the  relation  in  which  Chris- 
tianity has  stood,  or  has  aspired  to  stand,  towards  the 
national,  no  less  than  the  individual,  life.  Nietzsche  is  no 
Christian  at  all.  His  hatred  of  Christianity  is  only  second, 
if  it  is  second,  to  his  hatred  of  Great  Britain.  Bemhardi 
is  a  Christian  after  the  Kaiser's  own  heart  ;  but  he  holds 
that  Christianity,  if  it  is  good  enough  for  the  Church  and 
the  family,  neither  possesses,  nor  ought  to  possess,  any 
influence  upon  the  conduct  of  nations.  The  repudiation 
of  the  Christian  faith  is  naturally  followed  by  the  repudia- 
tion of  Christian  morals.  The  individual  man  becomes 
no  more  than  a  machine.  He  is  the  subject  or  the  serf 
of  the  State.  Whatever  the  State  bids  him  to  do,  it  is 
his  duty  to  do,  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  State,  and 
nothing  is,  or  can  be,  higher  than  the  State.  But  the 
State,  or  the  Army  as  the  impersonation  of  the  State, 
may,  and  will,  commit  every  crime  for  its  own  ends.  There 
lies  in  this  doctrine  of  the  State  the  germ  of  the  "  fright - 
fulness,"  which  the  Kaiser  preached  to  his  troops  before 
they  sailed  to  China  at  the  time  of  the  attack  made  by 
the  Boxers  upon  the  Legations  in  Pekin,  and  which  he  has 
since  practised,  or  ordered  to  be  practised,  in  Russia,  in 
Poland,  in  France,  in  Flanders,  and  in  Belgium.  If  the 
Germans  are  called,  and  if  they  resent  being  called,  Huns, 
it  is  only  fair  to  plead  that  the  Kaiser  himself  held  up 
the  example  of  Attila  before  their  eyes.  Unfortimately 
Attila  has  reappeared,  but  not  St.  Leo  the  Great.  There 
is  literally  no  action,  however  immoral,  however  inhiunan, 
of  which  the  Germans  in  their  present  mood  would  not 
be  guilty,   or  would  not  be   capable  of  being   guilty,  if  it 


52  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

A  careful  American  observer  has  recently  declared  that 
"  the  German  people  are  as  inseparable  from  the  Kaiser 
as  we,  in  America,  are  from  our  Constitution."  He  adds 
that  "  the  Social  Democratic  Party  in  Germany  is,  itself, 
organized  upon  the  principle  of  submission  to  the  monarchy, 
and  does  not  in  the  least  resemble  the  Democratic  Party 
in  the  American  sense  of  the  word  " — a.  statement  true 
enough  if  the  submission  is  imderstood  to  bb  not  voluntary 
but  enforced. 

It  is  upon  the  ground  of  Kultur  or  efficiency  that  the 
Germans  justify  their  system  of  government.  But  that 
from  such  a  system  flow  certain  consequences  of  grave 
and  serious  moment  for  humanity  they  do  not  attempt 
to  deny. 

The  State  is,  in  their  eyes,  supreme.  It  can  do  no 
wrong  ;  it  can  offend  no  moral  law  ;  for  duty  to  the  State 
is  the  climax  of  morality.  It  can  excuse  no  disloyalty  or 
indifference.  It  claims,  and  it  is  entitled  to  claim,  the 
subordination  of  every  citizen,  and  in  every  citizen  of  his 
whole  nature,  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  Neither  above,  nor 
beside,  the  State  is  there,  nor  can  there  be,  anything  which 
a  citizen  can  justly  regard  in  comparison  with  the  State 
itself.  It  would  be  amusing,  if  it  were  not  distressing, 
to  observe  how  German  thought  naturally  rises  above  the 
individual,  above  the  family,  above  the  town,  above  the  city 
to  the  State  ;  but  at  the  State  it  stops  dead.  It  takes 
no  account  of  Europe  or  the  world,  humanity  or  God.  It 
takes,  or  it  seems  to  take,  no  account  of  other  States  than 
the  German.  No  feature  of  German  political  speculation 
is  more  remarkable  than  the  narrow  limits  within  which 
it  moves.  Even  in  the  domain  of  philosophy  and  theology 
German  writers  have  lately  exhibited,  and  have  felt  no 
apparent  shame  in  exhibiting,  a  curious  ignorance  of  much 
that  has  been  thought  and  taught  outside  Germany.  But 
in  political  history  they  think  of  Germany  alone.  "  The 
real  hypothesis  of  all  their  reasoning  is  an  exclusive 
nationalism.  We  read  of  Deutsche  Treue,  Deutsche  Tap- 
ferkeit,  Deutsche  Kultur,  until  we  begin  to  realize  that 
the  German  mind  lives  in  an  exclusively  German  world 
of  its  own.  The  wind  of  the  spirit  that  blows  freely 
through  Europe  stops  at  the  Rhine,  and  a  new  wind  of 
the  German  spirit  takes  its  place."  » 

*  "  Niet/.sche  and  Treitschke.    The  Worship  of  Power  in  Modem  Germany," 
by  Ernest  Barker,  pp.  19,  30. 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  53 

No  authoritative  German  writer  since  Kant  has,  appar- 
ently, asked  why  England  or  Frajice  or  Russia  should 
not,  in  international  relations,  make  precisely  the  same 
claims  as  Germany,  and  how,  if  such  claims  are  made  by 
all  the  great  States,  they  can  be  adjusted  without  an  un- 
ceasing warfare  between  them,  until,  at  last,  all  the  States 
are  absolutely  merged  in  the  one  supreme,  victorious  State. 
That  State,  as  the  Germans  necessarily  anticipate,  will  be 
Germany  itself.  For  the  essential  superiority  of  the 
German  people  to  all  other  peoples,  as  of  the  German  State 
to  all  other  States,  is  an  axiom  underlying  much,  if  not 
all,  that  German  publicists  and  philosophers  have  lately 
written  upon  the  history  and  the  destiny  of  mankind. 

The  worship  of  the  State,  and  of  the  German  State,  is 
admittedly  inconsistent  with  the  relation  in  which  Chris- 
tianity has  stood,  or  has  aspired  to  stand,  towards  the 
national,  no  less  than  the  individual,  life.  Nietzsche  is  no 
Christian  at  all.  His  hatred  of  Christianity  is  only  second, 
if  it  is  second,  to  his  hatred  of  Great  Britain.  Bemhardi 
is  a  Christian  after  the  Kaiser's  own  heart  ;  but  he  holds 
that  Christianity,  if  it  is  good  enough  for  the  Church  and 
the  family,  neither  possesses,  nor  ought  to  possess,  any 
influence  upon  the  conduct  of  nations.  The  repudiation 
of  the  Christian  faith  is  naturally  followed  by  the  repudia- 
tion of  Christian  morals.  The  individual  man  becomes 
no  more  than  a  machine.  He  is  the  subject  or  the  serf 
of  the  State.  Whatever  the  State  bids  him  to  do,  it  is 
his  duty  to  do,  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  State,  and 
nothing  is,  or  can  be,  higher  than  the  State.  But  the 
State,  or  the  Army  as  the  impersonation  pf  the  State, 
may,  and  will,  commit  every  crime  for  its  own  ends.  There 
lies  in  this  doctrine  of  the  State  the  germ  of  the  "  fright - 
fulness,"  which  the  Kaiser  preached  to  his  troops  before 
they  sailed  to  China  at  the  time  of  the  attack  made  by 
the  Boxers  upon  the  Legations  in  Pekin,  and  which  he  has 
since  practised,  or  ordered  to  be  practised,  in  Russia,  in 
Poland,  in  France,  in  Flanders,  and  in  Belgium.  If  the 
Germans  are  called,  and  if  they  resent  being  called,  Huns, 
it  is  only  fair  to  plead  that  the  Kaiser  himself  held  up 
the  example  of  Attila  before  their  eyes.  Unfortimately 
Attila  has  reappeared,  but  not  St.  Leo  the  Great.  There 
is  literally  no  action,  however  immoral,  however  inhuman, 
of  which  the  Germans  in  their  present  mood  would  not 
be  guilty,   or  would  not  be   capable  of  being   guilty,  if  it 


56  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

while  to  consider  what  is  the  true  relation  of  the  State  to 
its  citizens  and  of  the  citizens  to  their  State. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  if  citizens  in  the  future 
are  to  discharge  their  patriotic  duties,  they  must  be  taught 
from  early  childhood  how  heavy  is  their  debt  to  the  State, 
and  how  urgent  is  the  obligation  upon  them  to  pay  it  by 
personal  service  and  sacrifice.  The  individual  will  be 
regarded,  not  by  himself,  in  the  light  of  his  own  interest, 
but  in  his  subordination  to  the  State.  He  will  realize  that 
he  cannot  attain  the  perfection  of  his  own  moral  or  social 
nature,  except  in  society  ;  and  he  will  repudiate  the  idea  of 
expecting  and  demanding  the  benefits  which  society  confers 
upon  him,   without  making  an  adequate  return  for  them. 

As  the  individual  is  dignified,  first,  by  membership  of 
the  family  and  then  of  the  clan  and  the  town,  so,  too,  will 
he  gain  further  dignity  as  a  citizen  of  the  State.  Patriotism 
is  an  inspiring  and  ennobling  virtue,  if  only  because  it 
lifts  a  Iman's  eyes  above  himself  into  the  region  of  altruistic 
duties  and  responsibilities. 

But  if  there  is  a  brotherhood  of  individuals,  so  is  there, 
at  least  in  idea,  a  brotherhood  of  nations  or  States.  It 
is  an  error  to  assume  that  one  State  can  rightly  conceive 
and  execute  a  policy,  which  would  be  intolerable  or  impos- 
sible, if  it  were  the  policy  of  all  States.  Kant's  great 
principle  that  it  is  a  man's  duty  to  act  in  such  a  manner 
as  would  be  beneficial  to  the  world,  if  all  men  acted  as 
he  acts,  is  not  less  applicable  to  States.  It  is,  indeed,  the 
Golden  Rule  enunciated  by  Our  Lord,  though  perhaps  in 
less  persuasive  terms  than  His  who  first  laid  it  down. 
Statesmen  and  diplomatists,  if  they  desire  to  promote  human 
good,  can  pursue  no  better  goal  than  that  of  inducing 
communities  to  act  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  gentlemen. 
Whatever  distinguishes  civilization  from  barbarism  in  per- 
sonal life,  e.g.  a  recourse  to  the  judiciary  for  the  peacefvil 
settlement  of  disputed  questions,  should,  in  the  long  run, 
be  practised  by  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world.  The 
case  of  the  Alabama  has  now  pretty  well  faded  from 
memory  ;  but  it  was  a  case  which  initiated  the  only  sound 
Christian  principle  of  regulating  international  disputes. 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  true  and  the  false  spirit  of  a 
nation's  life  are  nowhere  more  clearly  seen  than  in  its 
relation  to  its  colonies  and  dependencies.  "The  white 
man's  burden,"  as  it  has  been  so  well  called  by  Mr. 
Kipling,    positively    forbids    such    practices    as    Germany 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    CITIZEN  57 

appears  to  have  employed  in  the  country  of  the  Hereros  or 
in  the  Cameroon  ;  but  it  prescribes  the  spirit  which,  upon 
the  whole,  though  not  without  grave  mistakes,  has  actuated 
the  British  Government  in  India,  and  that  Government  has 
found  its  reward  in  the  general  loyalty  of  the  Indian  princes 
and  peoples  during  the  war. 

No  doubt  authority  rests,  and  must  rest,  upon  force. 
Yet  force  should  be  not  that  of  one  State  armed  against 
another,  or  against  others,  but  that  of  the  United  States  of 
Europe,  and,  ultimately,  of  the  world,  banding  themselves 
together  against  the  aggressiveness  of  any  one  State. 

For  there  can  be  freedom  in  a  State  only  when  it  allows 
freedom  outside  itself.  But  freedom  is  the  condition  of 
progress.  The  danger  of  suppressing  individual  opinion 
and  action  is  as  serious  in  a  democracy  as  in  a  monarchy 
or  an  oligarchy.  Burke  has,  indeed,  argued  that  the 
tyranny  of  a  democracy  is  the  most  dangerous  of  all 
tyrannies,  because  it  allows  no  appeal  against  itself.  If 
small  States  have  done  as  much  for  the  advance  of  the 
world  as  large  States,  if  minorities  have  been  as  often 
right  as  majorities,  if  individuals  have  again  and  again 
asserted  the  wrong  of  laws  or  usages  which  had  until  then 
been  universally  accepted,  if  they  have  fought  and  suffered 
and,  not  seldom,  died  for  the  reforms  which  have  made 
human  life  sweeter  and  happier,  then  it  follows  that  the 
State  attains,  or  comes  near  to  attaining,  its  ideal,  in  so 
far  as  it  allows  every  individual  citizen  the  utmost  measure 
of  liberty  which  is  not  incompatible  with  the  rights  of 
other  citizens  and  with  the  welfare  of  the  State. 

It  appears,  then,  that  education  after  the  war  will  be 
directed  more  than  it  has  been  towards  good  citizenship 
as  its  goal.  The  citizen  of  the  future  will  be  instinct  with 
the  love  of  his  country.  He  will  estimate  no  personal 
sacrifice  too  heavy  as  a  return  for  the  benefits  which  his 
country  confers  upon  him.  He  will  feel  proud  of  subordi- 
nating his  private  interests  and  ambitions  to  the  public 
good.  He  will  shrink  from  such  trifles,  disputes,  and 
antagonisms  as  impair,  and  may  even  destroy,  the  efficiency 
of  his  State.  But  he  will  look  upon  his  State  as  one 
member  in  the  confraternity  of  States  which  constitute  the 
sum  of  civilized  humanity.  He  will  prepare  himself  to 
defend  his  State  by  compulsory  training,  if  not  by  com- 
pulsory service,  in  arms.  But  he  will  remember  that  his 
patriotism,   good   as   it   is    in   itself,  may  become  an  evil, 


58  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

if  it  ignores  or  disputes  the  rights  of  other  nations  than 
his  own.  The  nations  of  the  world  are  a  family  ;  and 
the  more  closely  they  are  imited  by  ties,  commercial  and 
political,  the  nearer  will  they  approximate  to  the  ideal  of 
humanity.  It  is  not  by  warfare,  then,  but  by  arbitration 
that  States,  like  individuals,  will  aspire  to  settle  their  differ- 
ences. There  will  be  a  Federation,  such  as  the  United 
States  of  Europe,  which  will  bring  the  collective  forces  of 
the  nations  to  bear  upon  any  one  nation  which  may  be 
thought  to  aim  at  violating  international  peace.  It  is  prob- 
able, as  indeed  President  Taft  once  declared,  that  there 
will,  in  the  end,  be  no  international  question  which  may 
not  be  brought  before  some  such  tribunal  as  the  Court  of 
the  Hague.  For  when  the  love  of  country  coincides  with 
the  love  of  mankind,  progress — the  only  progress  worth 
attaining   and   ensuring — becomes  possible. 

Many  years  ago,  in  1842,  the  poet  Tennyson,  in 
*'  Locksley  Hall,"  drew  a  prophetic  picture.  There  were 
two  elements  or  aspects  in  the  picture.  One  of  them  has 
been  already  realized  in  the  present  war.     The  world  has 

Heard  the  heavens  fill'd  with  shouting,  and  there  rain'd  a  ghastly  dew 
From  the  nations*  airy  navies,  grappHng  in  the  central  blue. 

It  will  be  the  sacred  task  of  humanity  in  the  future  to 
realize  the  second  aspect  of  his  picture  : 

Till  the  war  drum  throbb'd  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  were  furl'd 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER    III 

The  Cultivation  of  Patriotism 

By  the   earl  OF   MEATH 

I  HAVE  been  asked  by  the  Editor  of  these  essays  to  con- 
tribute an  article  on  the  Cultivation  of  Patriotism.  I 
gladly  accede  to  his  request,  for  it  appears  to  me  that 
the  sentiment  of  patriotism,  when  founded  on  the  love  of 
home  and  of  free  institutions,  and  tvhen  unalloyed  by 
admixture  with  the  baser  qualities  of  arrogance  and  of 
vainglory,  is  a  source  of  untold  strength  to  a  nation.  Such 
a  sentiment  cannot  be  ignored  with  impunity.  It  cannot 
be  forced  by  educators  or  statesmen,  nor  is  it  capable  of 
being  produced  at  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  tyrant.  It  is 
a  delicate  plant  which  refuses  to  be  cultivated  on  uncon- 
genial soil,  but,  given  the  proper  conditions  of  growth, 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  cultivator,  either  by  neglect  to 
starve  it  into  atrophy,  or  by  care  and  proper  nurture  to 
cause  it  to  bring  forth  fruit,  so  that  it  shall  repay  him  a 
hundredfold  for  his  toil  and  attention. 

No  foolish  fear  of  fostering  a  military  spirit  should  ever 
lead  those  who  have  in  their  hands  the  direction  of  youth- 
ful education  to  stunt  or  repress  the  growth  of  this  valuable 
sentiment  ;  let  them  rather  guide  it  into  healthy  diredtions, 
where  its  progress,  far  from  being  a  source  of  danger  to 
humanity,  may,  by  stimulating  the  energies  and  purifying 
of  the  motives  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Britain,  be 
the  means  of  bringing  untold  blessings  to  millions  of  the 
world's  inhabitants. 

The  present  world -war  has  called  forth  a  marvellous 
exhibition  of  the  power  of  patriotic  feeling  amongst  the 
free  peoples  of  the  Empire.  His  Majesty  the  King,  in  his 
noble  Message  to  his  people  of  May  25,  191  5,  pointed  this 
out  when  he  said  :    "I  desire  to  take  this   opportunity  of 

59 


6o  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

expressing  to  my  people  my  recognition  and  appreciation 
of  the  splendid  patriotism  and  self-sacrifice  which  they 
have  displayed  in  raising  by  voluntary  enlistment,  since 
the  commencement  of  the  war,  no  less  than  5,041,000 
men,  an  effort  far  surpassing  that  of  any  other  nation  in 
similar  circumstances  recorded  in  history,  and  one  which 
will  be  a  lasting  source  of  pride  to  future  generations." 

The  self-sacrificing  effort  which  the  nation  has  made 
to  supplement  tliese  large  figures  by  placing  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Government  the  services  of  every  man  fit 
for  national  work  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  sixty 
is  another  proof  of  the  existence  amongst  the  peoples 
of  Great  Britain  of  immense  reservoirs  of  patriotic  feeling, 
and  a  similar  spirit  is  manifest  in  all  portions  of  the  Empire. 
Compulsory  national  service  has  been  adopted  in  Australia 
and  New  Zealand,  and  doubtless  will  shortly  be  in  force 
in  the  other  self-governing  Dominions. 

If  the  war  should  last  for  a  considerable  time  longer, 
it  is  probable  that  compulsion  will  be  enacted  in  the  case 
of  women  who  have  not  offered  their  services  to  the  State, 
for  work  of  a  national  kind  suitable  to  their  sex.  The 
exhibition  of  patriotic  feeling  amongst  women,  and  the 
splendid  manner  in  which  they  have  spared  neither  health, 
strength,  nor  money  in  advancing  the  public  interests,  has 
strengthened  the  hearts  of  men,  has  added  to  the  glory  of 
Britain,  and  has  established  a  national  asset  of  incal- 
culable value.  They  have  proved  themselves  worthy  to 
be  invited  to  take  their  part  in  the  future  in  the  government 
of  the  British  Empire  and  in  the  maintenance  of  its  honour. 

Such  has  been  the  power  of  patriotic  feeling  amongst 
the  vast  majority  of  the  freedom-loving  British  peoples  ; 
but  let  not  our  justifiable  pride  in  this  exhibition  of 
patriotism  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  there  have  been  un- 
mistakable signs  amongst  small  sections  of  both  rich  and 
poor,  especially  in  the  British  Isles,  of  a  selfish,  indifferent, 
cowardly  spirit  which  has  declined  to  associate  its  interests 
with  those  of  the  community  at  large,  and  has  to  the  best 
of  its  power  attempted  to  seek  exemption  from  all  national 
sacrifice.  These  sections  are  principally  to  be  found 
amongst  those  who  have  grown  suddenly  rich  and  who 
have  managed  to  escape  from  the  responsibilities  attaching 
to  wealth,  and,  at  the  other  extreme  of  the  social  hierarchy, 
amongst  those  who  have  become  victims  of  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  former   class,   or   who  by,  misfortune   or   their 


THE    CULTIVATION    OF    PATRIOTISM  6i 

own  weakness  have  sunk  to  such  depths  of  misery  and 
penury  as  to  render  the  growth  in  their  minds  of  any 
patriotic  feeling  an  almost  absolute   impossibility. 

The  experience  we  have  gained  in  this  time  of  national 
war  stress  should  guide  our  conduct  in  the  future.  Recog- 
nizing the  value  of  patriotism,  we  should  do  our  utmost  to 
cultivate  the  sentiment  amongst  all  classes,  and  especially 
amongst  the  young.  It  is  evident  that  it  is  a  plant  which 
needs  a  congenial  soil.  Let  us  remove  all  hindrances  to 
healthy  growth  ;  let  us  break  up  hard,  ungrateful  soil, 
and  replace  it  by  rich  and  fruitful  mould.  We  shall  be 
repaid  a  hundredfold  for  our  trouble. 

There  must  be  an  end  to  slums,  to  exploitation  of  labour, 
and  to  all  conditions  which  contribute  towards  a  low  national 
standard  of  moral,  mental,  and  physical  health  and  strength. 
Lord  Beaconsfield  once  said  :  "  The  public  health  is  the 
foundation  on  which  repose  the  happiness  of  the  people 
and  the  power  of  a  country.  The  care  of  the  public 
health  is  the  first  duty  of  a  statesman."  We  must  see 
that  the  people  are  provided  with  decent  homes  and  with 
the  means  of  acquiring  with  ease  a  direct  interest  in  the 
soil  which  under  present  legislation  they  may  at  any  time 
be  called  on  to  defend.  '*  The  foimdations  of  national 
glory,"  said  King  George  V,  "  are  set  in  the  homes  of 
the  people,  and  they  will  only  remain  unshaken  while  the 
family  life  of  our  nation  is  strong,  simple,  and  pure." 
True  and  noble  words,  which  it  behoves  us  never  to  forget  ! 

What  are  the  steps,  then,  which  can  be  taken  to 
encourage  the   cultivation  of  patriotism? 

1 .  Every  effort  should  be  made  in  the  schools  to  explain 
to  children  the  solid  foundations  on  which  British  patriotism 
is  founded — to  point  out  to  them  that,  notwithstanding  much' 
which  is  regrettable  in  the  conditions  of  life  at  home, 
speaking  broadly,  in  no  country,  and  under  no  form  of 
government  outside  the  British  Empire,  are  more  equitable 
laws,  purer  justice,  and  more  righteous  administration  to 
be  found. 

2.  Greater  attention  should  be  paid  in  the  schools  to 
the  teaching  of  the  history  and  geography  of  the  Empire, 
and  some  knowledge  should  be  imparted  in  regard  to  the 
characters,  religions,  ideals,  customs,  and  manufactures  of 
the  420  millions  of  our  fellow -subjects  throughout  the 
world.  '       '•  '       (  !   "^i  '•"! 

3.  Greater  stress  should  be  laid  in  schools  on  the  teach- 


62  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

ing  of  practical  subjects  which  would  enable  every  boy 
when  he  left  school  to  be  able  to  earn  his  own  living, 
and  every  girl  to  be  able  to  cook,  to  make  her  own 
garments,   to   care   for  a   baby,   and  to   keep    house. 

4.  Both  boys  and  girls  should  be  taught  the  rudiments 
of  hygiene,  sanitation,  and  physiology,  so  as  to  have  some 
slight  knowledge  of  the  causes  of  disease  and  the  means 
which  can  be  taken  to  avoid  it. 

5.  The  training  of  children  in  character  and  in  self- 
restraint  should  cake  precedence  of  mere  book-learning — 
and  the  co-operation  of  parents  should  be  invited  in  all 
schools  in  order  that  such  training  may  be  properly  con- 
tinued at  home.  The  "  Duty  and  Discipline  Movement  " 
might  perhaps  assist  in  this  direction,  and  the  adoption 
of  the  "  Boy  Scouts  "  and  "  Girl  Guides  "  curricula  as 
part  of  the  training  of  every  boy  and  girl  attending  schools 
should  form  part  of  a  national  system  of  juvenile  character 
training . 

As  the  founder  of  the  "  Empire  Movement,"  the  watch- 
words of  which  are  "  Responsibility,  Duty,  Sympathy,  and 
Self-sacrifice,"  perhaps  I  may  be  excused  if  I  suggest 
that  a  more  general  adoption  of  the  movement  throughout 
the  entire  community,  and  especially  in  the  schools  of 
the  Empire,  would  materially  assist  towards  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  national  and  imperial  patriotism  founded  on  sane 
and  reasonable  lines.  It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  that 
it  is  the  moral  character  of  the  people  of  a  nation  which 
determines  the  position  which  such  a  nation  shall  occupy 
in  the  world. 

It  is  useless  to  midtiply  armies  and  fleets,  to  supply  them 
with  the  most  modem  appliances  of  war,  if  the  men  behind 
the  guns  are  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  the  terms  loyalty, 
obedience,  self-sacrifice,  courage,  and  devotion  to  duty. 
The  same  remark  is  equally  true  in  regard  to  the  avoca- 
tions of  peace.  The  country  may  possess  richly  endowed 
universities,  colleges,  and  technical  schools  ;  its  factories 
may  be  supplied  with  the  best  machinery  ;  but  if  its 
merchants,  its  manufacturers,  and  its  workpeople  are  self- 
seekers,  devoid  of  honesty,  careless  of  the  general  weal, 
idle,  and  profligate,  ruin  will  sooner  or  later  overtake  that 
country,  and  sooner  rather  than  later. 

If  we  desire  the  ailtivation  of  patriotism  amongst  the 
rising  generation,  support  should  in  the  first  place  be  given 
to  any  efforts  which  may  be  giade  by  parents  and  teachers. 


THE    CULTIVATION    OF    PATRIOTISM  63 

and  by  organizations  like  the  "  Duty  and  Discipline  Move- 
ment," of  117  Victoria  Street,  S.W.,  to  instil  into  the 
minds  of  the  young  the  importance  of  certain  virtues  which 
in  the  past  have  been  sometimes  neglected — namely  those 
of  unselfishness,  and  of  respect  and  of  obedience  to  lawful 
authority.  Without  these  virtues  no  people  can  become 
permanently  great.  History  distinctly  teaches  us  this 
lesson.  Wherever  and  whenever  in  the  past  history  of  the 
world  a  people  have  become  united  by  reverence  for  the 
powers  that  be — whether  these  powers  were  represented 
by  an  autocrat  or  by  a  popularly  elected  ruler — or  when- 
ever and  wherever  a  people  have  been  animated  and  united 
by  some  common  ideal  of  a  personally  unselfish  character, 
there  and  then  that  people  have  stepped  into  the  front 
rank  amongst  nations.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  a  people 
have  lost  respect  for  their  rulers,  or  have  allowed  the  selfish 
interests  of  the  individual  to  take  the  place  of  devotion  to 
the  State  or  the  common  good,  then,  however  apparently 
strong,  however  rich,  however  lavishly  equipped  either  for 
peace  or  war,  that  people  have  ultimately  fallen  from  their 
high  estate. 

The  lesson  of  civic  duty  needs  to  be  taught  to  both 
rich  and  poor.  If  in  the  past  the  rich  had  been  more 
alive  to  their  civic  duty  and  had  taken  a  more  personal 
and  active  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  masses,  and  in  the 
training  and  education  of  the  people,  there  would  have 
been  less  class  hostility,  and  the  opening  of  this  war  would 
have  found  us  an  even  more  united  nation  than  it  did. 
The  patriotism  displayed  by  the  nation  has  been  great, 
but  British  patriotism  has  during  the  course  of  the  war 
been  not  infrequently  robbed  of  half  its  effective  force 
through  a  national  lack  of  discipline  and  of  preparedness 
for  all  eventualities. 

Let  us  see  to  it  that  in  future  our  patriotic  fervour  be 
not  weakened  by  lack  of  discipline.  Let  us  remember  that 
no  nation  can  be  permanently  strong  which  declines  to  be 
united  by  the  fortifying  cement  of  discipline.  Let  us  not 
be  misled  by  words.  Hatred  of  German  "  Kultur  "  and 
of  the  cruel,  heartless  discipline  practised  by  our  enemies 
should  not  blind  us  to  the  imperative  need  of  a  reasonable 
discipline,  without  which  it  would  be  impossible  for  the 
free  nations  of  the  world  to  withstand  successfully,  either 
in  war  or  peace,  the  concentrated  blows  of  a  trained  military 
autocracy  seeking  the  domination  of  the  world. 


64  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP. 

We  cannot  hope  to  engraft  the  civic  virtues  on  an  un- 
disciplined race.  Let  our  first  endeavour  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  patriotism  be  to  restore,  where  lost,  a  reasonable 
discipline  to  the  home  and  to  the  school,  and  then  we  may 
hope  to  instil  that  sensible  loyalty  to  King  and  Empire, 
that  sense  of  duty  to  the  State  and  to  the  community,  that 
love  for  our  fellow -creatures,  which  shall  enable  the  subjects 
of  King  George,  in  whatever  part  of  the  globe  they  may 
reside,  to  think,  not  only  imperially,  but  nobly  and  intel- 
ligently, thus  rendering  them  worthy  of  the  vast  privileges 
and  responsibilities  to  which,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
they  have  been  called. 

Our  word  is  peace,  our  rights  are  equal  laws, 
Our  arms  of  love  we  spread  from  sea  to  sea, 

Our  life  is  progress  toward  the  broader  cause, 
Our  hope,  through  justice,  to  give  liberty. 


CHAPTER    IV 

The    Alien    Question 

By   sir    H.    H.   JOHNSTON 

It  is  requisite  to  approach  this  problem  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  of  the  British  Empire  in  general  without  the 
slightest  prepossession  founded  on  ignorance — ignorance 
especially  of  ethnology  and  history.  Unhappily,  all  British 
Governments  down  to  191 6,  Government  permanent  officials 
of  all  Government  departments  (with  a  few  exceptions), 
all  schoolmasters,  all  Civil  Service  Commissioners,  have 
united  to  oppose  or  neglect  the  teaching  of  ethnology 
in  our  primary,  our  secondary,  our  public  and  proprie- 
tary schools.  Ethnology,  it  is  true,  is  treated  admirably 
and  on  a  broad  basis  and  yet  with  scrupulous  regard 
to  detail  at  our  great  Universities  ;  but  as  it  does  not 
figure — to  any  extent  that  matters — ^in  the  curricula  of 
all  Government  examinations,  it  is  very  seldom  taken  up 
as  a  subject  of  learning,  even  by  those  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  who  desire  to  serve  the  Empire  abroad.  It 
is  still  less  studied  by  the  classes  that  furnish  the  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons  or  the  House  of  Lords.  Simi- 
larly, history — above  all,  modem  history  and  history  which 
takes  the  sciences  into  account — is  neglected  in  the  education 
of  all  parts  of  the  British  Empire.  Therefore  our  statesmen, 
our  journalists,  our  men  and  women  in  the  street,  our 
politicians,  and  almost  every  one  except  the  clergy  and  a  few 
men  of  science  approach  the  question  of  Alien  Emigration,  of 
the  naturalization  of  persons  not  of  British  birth,  with  preju- 
dice, rancour,  or  unintelligence.  I  except  the  clergy  of 
all  denominations  and  churches  from  my  diatribe  because 
the  influence  of  missionary  societies  has  been  enormous  in 
liberalizing  religion  and  in  imparting — I  will  not  say  an 
internationalism  so  much  as  an  inter -Imperialism — into  the 

\5l  ^5 


66  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP 

concepts  of  the  Anglican,  the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Presby- 
terian, the  Congregationalist,  the  Baptist,  the  Methodist, 
the  Quaker,  and  the  Unitarian. 

What  does  the  study  of  anthropology  and  ethnology  teach 
us  in  regard  to  the  past  history  of  the  population  of  the 
British  Islands  ?  It  shows  us  that  in  ancient  times  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  were  fantastically  shaped  peninsulas  of 
France  and  Flanders,  and  that  they  received  thus  from 
North -West  Europe  primitive  races  that  were  fleeing  from 
rivalry  with  more  advanced  types,  or  bold  and  reckless 
pioneers  of  these  newer  types  that  were  seeking  fresh  and 
unspoiled  hunting-grounds,  grazing  lands,  root-  and  nut-  and' 
fruit -bearing  forests.  The  peopling  of  Great  Britain  in 
Palaeolithic  times  was  often  interrupted  and  greatly  restricted 
by  climatic  conditions.  The  Ice  Ages  must  have  wiped 
out  the  first  colonizations,  most  of  the  second  and  of  the 
third,  and  the  damp  and  misty  climate  that  succeeded  have 
restricted  Post  Glacial  human  settlement  to  the  grassy  downs 
or  the  sea -coast.  The  stony  moimtains  were  too  bleak, 
the  forests  too  dense  and  too  thickly  inhabited  by  dangerous 
wild  beasts. 

The  earliest  type  of  Briton  as  yet  discovered — the  Pilt- 
doAvn  man  of  Sussex — was  an  ape-like  creature,  with  pointed 
and  projecting  canine  teeth.  He  was  apparently  succeeded 
by  races  more  akin  in  skull  form  to  the  Australoid  and 
the  Negroid  ;  then  at  a  much  later  date  came  the  Cro- 
Magnon  type,  possibly  the  first  definite  example  of  the 
highest  type  of  Homo  sapiens,  a  generalized  Caucasian 
not  without  suggestions  in  his  skull  and  leg  bones  of  the 
Mongol  and  the  Negroid.  In  appearance  he  may  have 
resembled  both  the  higher  types  of  Red  Man  in  North 
America  or  the  tall  peoples  of  North -West  India. 

Then,  as  he  died  out  or  became  fused  with  preceding 
types  of  population,  there  may  have  been  invasions  in  the 
far  North  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  by  the  Eskimo,  coming 
from  Boreal  Europe  ;  while  the  South  of  England,  and 
soon  afterwards  all  Ireland  and  much  of  Scotland  were 
penetrated  by  the  Mediterranean  or  Iberian  type  of  man, 
akin  to  the  basis  of  the  population  in  modem  Spain  and 
Portugal,  Western  and  Southern  France,  Italy  and  North 
Africa.  These  were  probably  the  people  of  the  Neolithic 
or  perfected -stone-implement  civilization.  Then,  again, 
Eastern  England  was  reached  from  the  coasts  of  Flanders 
and  Holland  by  a  round-headed  type  which  may  or  may  not 


THE    ALIEN    QUESTION  67 

have  been  akin  to  the  Alpine  peoples  of  Europe  and, 
farther  back  still,  to  the  Mongols  of  Central  Asia.  They 
brought  with  them,  at  any  rate  to  some  extent,  the  first 
use  of  metals,  improvements  in  pottery,  and  possibly  the 
art  of  domesticating  animals  and  the  pursuit  of  agriculture. 

Some  three  thousand  years  ago  or  less  arrived  the  first 
Aryan  populations,  able  to  impose  themselves  on  the  pre- 
ceding amalgam  of  British  races  by  their  bronze  weapons, 
their  superior  physique,  their  more  warlike  qualities.  Quite 
possibly  they  were  themselves  of  mixed  racial  type,  in 
which,  however,  the  Nordic  or  fair -haired  man  of  Northern 
Europe  and  Russia  prevailed.  For  many  centuries  they 
were  the  dominating  racial  type  in  our  two  Islands.  They 
were  the  ancestors  of  the  Goidhelic  Kelts,  and  their  supre- 
macy began  to  be  contested  about  600  B.C.  by  the  British 
Kelts,  whose  language  still  persists  in  Wales.  The  ancestral 
British  came  from  the  estuary  of  the  Somme  and  from 
Belgium.  They  subdued  the  greater  part  of  England  and 
Wales  and  South -West  Scotland,  and  possibly  attempted 
occasional  incursions  into  Ireland. 

The  rest  of  our  country's  ethnological  composition  is 
set  forth  in  written  history.  The  southern  coasts  of 
England,  and  perhaps  of  Ireland,  were  in  all  probability 
visited  by  the  Phoenicians,  but  they  were  first  definitely 
reached  by  the  Greeks  of  Marseilles  about  three  hundred 
years  before  the  Christian  era.  In  B.C.  55-54  the  Roman 
conquest  of  Britain  began,  and  by  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  of  the  Christian  era  had  linked  up  England  to  a 
remarkable  degree  with  the  civilization  and  history  of 
Western  and  Southern  Europe.  Not  even  the  huge  extent 
of  Teutonic  colonization  which  ensued  from  the  beginning 
of  the  sixth  century  onwards  could  efface  this  latinizing  of 
England,  Wales,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  The  Romans 
at  one  time  had  conquered  half  Scotland.  They  never 
reached  Ireland  as  conquerors,  but  their  civilization  was 
carried  thither  by  British  missionaries  ;  and  Ireland  in 
the  Dark  Ages  was  a  more  Christian  country  than  England, 
and  actually  sent  out  missionaries  to  hasten  the  Chris- 
tianizing of  Germany,  Holland,  and  Scandinavia.  Ireland 
also  took  advantage  of  the  breakdown  of  the  Roman  power 
in  Britain  to  conquer  and  colonize  portions  of  Wales,  the 
Isle  of  Man,  and  much  of  Scotland.  This  action  either 
brought  back  to  Great  Britain  or  established  there  for  the 
first  time  the  Goidhelic  language,  still  spoken  in  Western 


68  EMPIRE    AND     CITIZENSHIP, 

and  Central  Scotland  and  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  only  extinct 
in  South -West  Wales  since  about  nine  hundred  years. 

The  nearly  five  centuries  of  Roman  rule  had  undoubtedly 
imported  many  different  racial  types,  many  **  aliens  "  into 
England  and  Wales. 

I  continue  to  harp  on  the  subject  of  Wales,  because 
North  Wales  and  Anglesey,  especially,  seems  to  have 
attracted  a  very  considerable  degree  of  Roman  coloniza- 
tion. The  Romans  here  fought  out  the  last  of  their  battles 
with  the  Druids,  whom  they  had  chased  from  France  and 
followed  up  through  the  forests  of  Britain.  You  may  see 
to-day  in  North  Wales  most  interesting  churches — the  dis- 
establishment of  which  shows  the  complete  lack  of  ethno- 
logical knowledge  in  the  British  Government — which  had 
been  first  of  all  Druidical  temples  and  were  next  con- 
verted into  Roman  Christian  churches,  remaining  as  such, 
with  scarcely  an  interference  from  the  Saxons,  tmtil  they 
were  remodelled  and  touched  up  by  the  French  civilization 
of  mediasval  England  or  the  hideous  utilitarianism  of 
eighteenth -century  English   Christianity. 

The  Romans,  therefore,  must  have  established  many  ari 
Italian,  Dalmatian,  Pannonian,  German,  Gallic,  or  Spanish 
settler  in  our  principal  island,  who  intermarried  with  the 
British  women  and  left  his  strain  behind  him. 

But  the  greatest  ethnological  event  in  our  history  was 
*:he  Germanic  conquest  of  England  and  Lowland  Scotland 
between  the  sixth  and  the  eighth  centuries.  These  appar- 
ently long-headed,  **  Gothic  "  types  from  Western  Germany 
came  chiefly  from  what  is  now  Holstein  and  Southern 
Slesvig,  from  Oldenburg  and  Frisia,  and  were  represented, 
in  the  wording  of  contemporary  history,  by  the  Angles,  thte 
Jutes,  and  the  Saxons.  The  Angles  and  Jutes  probably  spoke 
a  Low  German  dialect,  of  which  the  existing^  Piatt -DeutscK 
is  the  descendant,  while  the  Saxons  were  more  likely  iden- 
tified with  the  modern  Frisians,  and  their  langtiage  became 
the  chief  parent  of  "  Anglo-Saxon,"  modern  English,  and 
the  Friesisch  dialects  of  Slesvig,  Oldenburg,  and  North' 
Holland.  The  Angles,  Jutes,  and  Saxons  were  pre-eminently 
a  fair-haired,  blue-eyed  people,  of  robust  build  and  good 
stature,  and  with  skulls  that  were  long  in  shape  rather  than 
broad.  They  foimd  in  our  Islands  a  population  which,  simi- 
larly, was  for  the  most  part  dolichokephalic,  though  with 
a  broad -headed  element  in  Eastern  England  that  had' 
remained  from  the  time  of  the  Bronze  Age.     The  Scandi- 


THE    ALIEN    QUESTION  6^ 

navians — Danes  and  Norwegians — who  began  to  colonize 
Britain  and  Ireland  between  the  ninth  and  the  eleventh 
centuries  were  also  long-headed.  In  stature  they  were 
even  taller  than  the  Anglo-Saxons  ;  they  were  blonder 
and  more  uniformly  grey-eyed  and  blue  eyed,  though 
amongst  them  occasionally  appeared  dark-haired  and  dark- 
eyed  Danes,  who  still  remain  as  the  relics — ^possibly — of 
the  Bronze  Age  peoples  in  Judand. 

Anglo-Saxon  rule  over  England  was  rudely  upset  by 
the  Norman  invasion  of  1066.  These  Normans,  who 
henceforth  became  the  aristocratic  caste  in  England,  Wales, 
Southern  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  were  themselves  a  very 
composite  type — perhaps  the  finest  and  handsomest  human 
development  that  history  has  known,  the  culmination  of 
the  White  man.  They  consisted  of  a  blend  of  Scandi- 
navian, Frank,  and  Romanized  Kelt  ;  indeed,  they  repre- 
sented in  themselves  once  again  the  principal  strands  of 
the  British  people.  They  brought  with  them  a  Latin 
civilization  and  a  dialect  of  the  French  language.  They 
made  our  English  tongue  what  it  is  to-day,  a  speech 
mainly  of  Germanic  stock  but  stuffed  with  Greek  and  Latin 
words,  either  derived  through  the  Norman  French  or  by 
the  direct  and  artificial  action  of  the  Latin  schoolmen. 
The  Normans  conquered  Ireland,  and  the  conquest  was 
further  carried  out  by  their  Angevin  successors.  The 
Crown  of  England  had  passed  from  the  family  of  William 
the  Norman  to  the  descendants  of  Fulke  of  Anjou,  which 
meant  that  the  Royal  Family  of  Britain  and  Ireland  was 
of  much  more  French  stock,  had  more  of  the  aboriginal 
Iberian  and  Alpine  elements  in  its  composition,  than  its 
predecessors  from  Normandy.  The  English  King  ruled 
on  both  sides  of  the  Channel,  and  his  domain  in  France 
extended  to  Gascony,  with  the  result  that  many  adventurers 
of  Basque,  Iberian,  Auvergnat  stock  came  to  England  and 
founded  great  families,  whose  blood  percolates  through  all 
our  English,  Scottish,  and  Irish  aristocracy. 

The  French  Kings  of  England  were  practical  men,  and 
found  both  England  and  Ireland  in  a  state  of  very  imperfect 
civilization  as  regards  the  arts  and  industries.  They  noted 
the  remarkable  civilization  of  Belgium  and  South  Holland, 
and  imported  during  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth 
centuries  hundreds,  even  thousands,  of  Flemish  artisans, 
artificers,  agriculturists,  stock-breeders,  and  planted  them 
in  colonies  throughout  the  coast  regions  of  Wales,  of  East 


70  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHrP, 

Anglia,  and  Southern  England.  A  trend  of  colonization 
also  from  France  had  set  in  with  the  advent  of  William 
the  Norman,  which  scarcely  ceased  until  Tudor  times.  A 
century  or  so  before  the  first  Tudor — the  first  really  British 
—dynasty  ruled  over  England  and  Ireland,  Italians  had 
begun  to  come  here  in  search  of  employment  :  men  fuU 
of  new  and  brilliant  ideas,  especially  as  regards  naviga- 
tion. One  of  these  Italian  families — the  Cabots — induced 
Henry  VII  to  supply  ships  and  money  for  a  great  over- 
sea adventure — the  crossing  of  the  Atlantic  to  find  North 
America.  The  Genoese  had  already  led  British  commerce 
by  the  hand  into  the  Levant,  and  right  across  the  Levant 
to  Persia  and  Central  Asia.  Venetians  and  Genoese,  alike, 
in  their  bitter  rivalry  with  Spain  and  Portugal,  egged  on 
the  English  in  Tudor  times  to  establish  trading  stations 
on  the  coast  of  West  Africa  and  in  Turkey.  In  Tudor 
times  we  had  no  British  portrait -painters,  few,  if  any,  British 
goldsmiths  or  artificers  in  the  precious  metals.  We 
imported  and  employed  in  these  capacities  Italians  ("  Lom- 
bard Street  "),  who  in  course  of  time  became  British  citizens 
and  founded  English-speaking  families. 

In  t"he  seventeenth  and  in  the  eighteenth  centuries  came 
the  invaluable  French  Huguenots  from  Western  France  and 
Southern  France,  and  some  of  our  most  distinguished  British 
citizens  at  the  present  day  are  of  French  descent  on  one 
side.  Several  of  the  leading  industries  of  Belfast  were 
founded  and  are  still  conducted  by  men  bearing  French 
names.  French  names,  indeed,  not  only  of  Norman  and 
Angevin  descent  but  of  much  more  recent  origin,  stud 
the  Army  lists  and  the  Navy  roUs,  the  Indian  and  Diplomatic 
services,  and  stand  out  prominently  in  the  achievements  of 
British  science. 

The  very  wars  between  Britain  and  Spain  and  the  alliance 
between  England  and  Portugal  during  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  brought  numerous  Spaniards  and 
Portuguese  to  our  coasts,  either  as  shipwrecked  mariners, 
prisoners  of  war,  or  voluntary  exiles.  Many  of  these 
remained.  Many  of  them  stimulated  British  enterprise 
across  the  seas.  Most  of  them  founded  British  families. 
More  Spanish  and  Portuguese  names  were  implanted  in 
our  country  by  the  readmission  of  the  Jews  into  England 
under  Oliver  Cromwell.  The  result  of  this  action,  which 
perhaps  chiefly  took  effect  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
was   the    inclusion   amongst   British   names   of  the   Basevi, 


THE    ALIEN    QUESTION  ji 

the  Souzas,  the  Disraelis,  or  the  Lopezes,  and  the  almost 
innumerable  patronymics  of  Spain,  Portugal,  Venice,  and 
Northern  Italy  which  appear  in  the  political  and  industrial 
annals  of  Great  Britain,  which  stand  out  so  prominently  in 
the  scarcely  written  history  of  the  British  West  Indies  (where 
the  Jews  ever  and  again  acted  as  unacknowledged  inter- 
mediaries between  Spain  and  England) .  Readers  of  this 
book  scarcely  need  to  be  reminded  that  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixties  and  much  of  the  seventies  the  United 
Kingdom  and  the  British  Empire  were  virtually  ruled  by 
a  Jew  of  Venetian  descent,  hailing  farther  back  still  from 
Spain  ;  and  this  great  Jew — Benjamin  Disraeli — who  left 
a  lasting  mark  on  the  history  of  Britain  and  of  the  world, 
was  encouraged  and  partly  saved  from  financial  anxiety  by 
the  generosity  of  a  Jewess  of  Portuguese  descent  (Mrs. 
Brydges  Williams). 

William  of  Orange  conquered  Ireland  and  established 
himself  as  King  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  chiefly 
with  the  aid  of  Dutch  troops  and  Dutch  generals,  whom 
he  made  peers  of  the  United  Kingdom.  He  introduced 
many  Dutchmen  into  the  British  service  and  into  the  British 
aristocracy,  where  their  names  figure  prominently.  Queen 
Anne,  like  her  great-grandfather  James  I,  had  a  Danish 
consort,  whose  residence  here  attracted  a  few  Danish 
followers,  the  descendants  of  whom  still  spell  their  names 
-sen  instead  of  -son.  George  I,  and  for  a  short  period 
George  II,  imported  thousands  of  German  soldiers  to  main- 
tain them  on  the  British  throne.  All  through  the  eighteenth 
and  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  influx  of 
Germans,  due  to  the  German  origin  and  relationships  of 
our  dynasty,  was  most  noteworthy  and  vastly  beneficial  to 
the  home  and  imperial  progress  of  the  United  Kingdom.  I 
have  said  in  other  books  that  it  is  not  easy  to  write  a 
well -packed  page  of  the  history  of  the  British  Empire  with- 
out bringing  in  a  German  name — if  one  is  to  write  that 
history  truthfully.  A  German  accompanied  as  second-in- 
command  the  great  Alexander  Mackenzie  when  he  crossed 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  from  east  to  west  and  planted 
the  British  flag  on  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  Germans  figure  quite  as  much  as  English,  Scottish, 
and  Irish  pioneers  in  the  opening  up  of  South  Africa,  in 
the  discoveries  of  India,  in  British  East  Africa,  in  British 
West  Africa,  in  Australia,  in  New  Zealand,  and  in  Tropical 
America. 


yi  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP. 

The  nineteenth  century  saw  Britain  becoming  the  home 
of  many  a  political  refugee — Hungarian,  Italian,  Prussian, 
Badenisch,  and  Pole.  Eccentric  some  of  them  might  have 
been  in  their  political  propaganda,  but  most  of  them  were 
brilliant  men,  who  achieved  great  distinction  in  our  home 
or  foreign  service.  Of  such  a  type,  for  example,  was 
Antonio  Panizzi,  who  was  long  at  the  head  of  the  British 
Museum.  In  our  own  days  thousands  of  Germans,  and 
still  more  thousands  of  Russian,  Polish,  and  Rumanian 
Jews,  have  come  to  England  to  seek  peace,  a  respite  from 
religious  or  civic  persecution,  and  a  livehhood.  A  small 
proportion  of  these  adventurers  have  been  wicked  j)eople!, 
coming  here  to  develop  vile  industries,  but  nine-tenths  of 
them  at  least  have  ultimately  proved  citizens  of  distinct 
value,  from  their  ideas,  from  the  wealth  they  have  made 
and  have  spent  in  Britain  and  on  British  interests.  In 
our  great  Imperial  adventures — most  of  them  very  splendid, 
some  of  them  very  shady — German  or  German  Jewish  names 
figure  markedly.  One  German  financier  intervened  finan- 
cially to  save  Egypt  for  the  British  Protectorate.  Several 
German  financiers  beguiled  timid  British  statesmen  into 
the  planting  of  the  British  flag  here,  there,  and  elsewherq 
in  Africa,  even  when  it  frustrated  the  designs  of  Imperial 
Germany.  Prior  to  the  outbreak  of  this  lamentable  war, 
if  any  British  man  of  genius  wanted  to  start  a  new  venture 
that  was  literary  or  dramatic,  the  opening  up  of  a  new 
country,  the  carrying  out  of  a  brilliant  invention  in  industry, 
in  chemistry,  in  science  generally,  to  whom  did  he  first 
appeal  ?  Usually  to  a  German,  and  most  often  to  a  German 
Jew.  Facts  are  facts,  however  they  may  be  unwelcome  at 
this  and  that  stage  of  our  national  history. 

In  short,  the  summing  up  of  this  historical  survey  is 
that  throughout  its  known  history,  from  the  date  of  the 
existence  of  Piltdown  Man  to  July  1 9 1 4,  Britain  and  Ireland 
have  not  only  received  colonization  from  almost  all  types 
of  the  European  peoples,  but  more  than  any  other  part 
of  Europe  they  have  been  enriched,  stimulated,  built  up 
into  the  most  magnificent  position  that  any  nation  lias  yet 
known  in  the  history  of  the  world  by  a  succession  of  alien 
immigrations.  The  literature  of  Shakespeare  is  virtually 
international  ;  the  English  language  is  virtually  inter- 
national, as  it  has  borrowed  from  more  sources  than  any 
other  example  of  European  sf>eech.  British  art  and  archi- 
tecture are   international.      British  science   is   international. 


The  alien  question  73 

We  are  really — we  British  people — ^the  pick  of  Europe, 
because  we  have  not  shut  out  immigration,  because  we 
have  welcomed   new-comers  and  new    ideas. 

This  war,  however,  has  caused  a  great  searching  of 
hearts.  It  has  been  estimated  that  even  since  the  expul- 
sion of  most  of  the  Germans  we  have  still  in  our  midst 
an  alien  population  of  200,000 — Russian,  Polish,  Rumanian 
in  origin  mainly,  but  also  Swiss,  Swede,  Dane,  and  Italian  ; 
French,  Belgian,  and  Portuguese.  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  still  contain,  despite  the  discomforts  of  the  war, 
many  men  and  women  of  United  States  nationality,  but 
in  this  case  the  distinction  between  the  two  peoples  is 
almost  derisory.  An  Englishman  is  scarcely  a  foreigner 
in  the  United  States,  and  to  no  greater  degree  is  the 
American  man  or  woman  in  Britain.  Are  we  to  make 
the  existence  of  "  friendly  "  aliens  uncomfortable  so  that 
they  eventually  leave  our  shores  ?  Are  we  to  refuse  any 
more  formal  naturalization  of  foreign -born  people  ?  Are 
we  when  the  war  is  over  to  take  special  means  to  prevent 
people  from  other  European  countries  coming  here  to  reside 
and  do  business  and  perhaps  settle  down.  Some  suggest 
whilst  the  war  is  going  on  that  we  should  constrain  all 
men  of  military  age  and  of  friendly  foreign  nationality 
to  leave  Great  Britain  and  repair  to  their  respective  countries 
of  origin,  there  to  do  their  duty  as  soldiers.  This  seems 
an  unanswerable  proposition,  except  when  special  excep- 
tion is  made  for  political  refugees  that  might  be  maltreated 
at  home,  or  persons  of  weak  health  and  poor  constitution. 
But  this  temporary  measure  will  not  solve  the  greater 
questions  of  naturalization  and  future  immigration.  How 
are  we  to  deal  with  these  ? 

Mainly  on  their  merits  and  by  no  sweeping  dictum, 
affirmative  or  negative.  A  foreigner  of  worth  who  has 
proved  his  value  to  the  British  community  by  a  sufficient 
term  of  residence  and  a  sufficient  creation  or  importation 
of  wealth  ought  certainly  to  be  naturalized  if  he  asks  for 
the  privilege.  We  should  be  surprised  if  our  fellow- 
subjects  who  had  invested  their  all  of  wealth  and  energy 
and  talent  in  the  United  States  (for  example)  might  not 
be  given  naturalization  for  themselves  and  their  descendants 
if  they  desired  it.  We  know  that  there  are  many  naturalized 
families  of  British  descent  in  Russia,  in  France,  in  Italy, 
and  in  other  European  countries.  But  naturalization  should 
be  a   carefully   considered  privilege   which   is  not   granted 


74  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

to  any  persons  who  by  their  poverty  or  their  lack  of  proof 
of  sterling  qualities  are  not  worth  making  into  British 
citizens.  However  we  may  sneer  at  wealth  and  howeveir 
rightly  we  may  insist  on  the  equity  of  methods  by  which 
wealth  is  attained,  we  cannot  deny  that  it  is  a  factor  of 
importance  in  estimating  the  value  of  individuals  and  races. 
Should  immigration  be  continued  without  much  further 
restriction  when  the  war  is  over  ?  Herein  we  must  be 
guided  by  the  rise  or  fall  of  our  birth-rate,  and  to  some 
extent  by  the  nationality,  physical  and  mental  qualities  of 
the  immigrants.  Theoretically,  if  we  are  to  write  and 
interpret  history  on  the  lines  of  truth,  we  must  admit  the 
enormous  indebtedness  of  the  British  people  in  all  the 
centuries  which  precede  the  twentieth  to  Germany.  The 
British  people  in  the  main  is  a  Germanic  people  and  speaks 
a  Germanic  language.  Because  Prussia  has  poisoned 
Germany,  because  there  are  cruel  Bavarian  Roundheads, 
that  is  no  reason  for  denying  the  very  great  physical  and 
mental  value  of  the  Germanic  milhons  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe,  Undoubtedly,  Germany  has  been  well  served 
by  her  special  spies  established  in  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland  prior  to  19 14,  and  even  cleverly  maintained  here 
in  many  cases  since  the  outbreak  of  war.  But  these  in 
actual  numbers  are  small  in  proportion  to  the  honest  German 
immigrants  who,  if  they  did  not  return  to  Germany  by 
expulsion  or  by  patriotism,  have  maintained  a  perfectly 
honest  and  upright  attitude  towards  their  adopted  country. 
They  have  deeply  regretted  the  gulf  which  now  yawns 
between  Britain  and  Germany  ;  a  gulf  which  doubtless 
cannot  be  bridged  for  another  fifty  years,  and  which  has 
been  widened  and  deepened  by  the  murder  of  Edith  Cavell, 
Captain  Fryatt,  and  the  passengers  of  the  Lusitania,  the 
Falaba,  and  the  innumerable  other  merchant  ships  sunk 
without  warning  by  German  torpedoes,  by  the  hideously 
cruel  maltreatment  of  British  prisoners  of  war,  and  by  the 
many  other  unforgivable  war  outrages  of  the  German 
military  caste.  In  the  state  of  public  opinion  after  the 
war  it  may  be  impossible  for  a  British  Ministry  to  accord 
naturalization  even  to  those  interned  Germans  against  whom 
no  accusation  of  treachery  can  be  brought  ;  and  certainly 
until  a  complete  change  in  German  feeling  towards  Britain 
and  the  British  Empire  is  manifested  by  a  political  revolu- 
tion against  the  Hohenzollern  dynasty,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary   to    discriminate    in    our    immigration    laws    against 


THE    ALIEN    QUESTION  75 

Germans  and  in  favour  of  the  subjects  of  our  present 
Allies.  But  the  general  question  of  admitting  foreign 
immigrants  as  residents  must  after  the  war  depend  greatly 
on  the  numbers,  the  birth  rate,  the  prosperity  of  the  British 
peoples. 

Our  attitude  towards  Germany  for  the  next  fifty  years,  or 
even  a  century,  will  depend  very  much  on  the  events  of  the 
next  two  years.  If  Germany  remains  faithful  to  the 
HohenzoUerns  to  the  conclusion  of  peace  and  beyond,  we 
can  have  no  dealings,  commercial  or  international,  with 
Germany  which  can  possibly  be  avoided.  But  as  regards 
the  main  question  of  alien  immigration,  I  would  submit 
that  we  should  be  wiser  to  continue  to  leave  things  as 
they  are  or  as  they  were  prior  to  August  19 14 — namely, 
carefully  to  scan  all  immigrants,  to  reject  those  whose 
physical  constitution,  mental  ability,  and  moral  history  do 
not  come  up  to  the  requisite  standard,  but  to  put  no  obstacle 
in  the  path  of  those  who  are  likely  to  prove  valuable 
citizens.  Certainly  not  from  any  superstition  as  to  the 
existence  of  any  special  British  race  or  class  ;  seeing  that 
we  are  compacted  of  all  European  types,  with  a  dash  of 
the  Asiatic  and  even  of  the  African,  and  that  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  plant  ourselves  in  foreign  countries. 

But  those  countries  are  usually  thinly  populated  for  their 
size  and  capacity  of  food  production.  We  do  not  want 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  to  be  an  ever -open  receptacle  for 
very  poor  immigrants  who  will  sharpen  the  struggle  for 
existence  among  the  poverty-stricken  in  our  own  land.  We 
might  even  forbid  pauper  immigration  until  the  social  fabric 
of  Great  Britain  is  so  reorganized  that  poverty,  insufficiency 
of  good  food  and  good  housing,  and  "  sweated  labour  "  are 
extinct  ;  and  until  hours  of  work  are  so  graded  that  no 
citizenness  or  citizen  is  overworked  or  without  a  reasonable 
proportion  of  time  for  education,  rest,  and  recreation.  But 
I  see  no  reason  why  our  immigration  laws  should  be  framed 
to  keep  out  from  residence,  or  even  from  naturalization, 
foreigners  of  good  repute^  of  useful  talent,  and  of  sufficient 
means. 

As  to  conditions  of  naturalization!,  I  think  those  recently 
issued  by  the  Unionist  War  Committee  not  unreasonable, 
except  the  last,  No.  5.     Here  they  are:  — 

I.  The  principle  of  parentage  should  be  substituted  for  birth  as  the  basis  upon 
which  British  citizenship  may  be  acquired. 
3.  Seven  years'  residence  in  British  Dominions  before  naturalization. 


Td  EMPIRE    AND    CITIZENSHIP, 

3.  Renunciation   of  allegiance  by  the    applicant  for    naturalization    of    his 
previous  nationality. 

4.  Full  disclosure  of  previous  history  and  business  of  every  applicant  for 
naturalization. 

5.  No  naturalized  person  to  be  eligible  for  either  House  of  Parliament,  or  the 
Privy  Council,  or  any  civil  office  of  the  value  of  more  than  ;£i6o  per  annum. 

I  believe  myself  that  we  have  done  well  for  the  Empire 
and  for  the  United  Kingdom  hitherto  by  taking  a  large  view 
in  regard  to  this  fifth  proposition.  I  really  do  not  know — 
nor  even  much  suspect — any  instance  in  which  any 
naturalized  British  subject  admitted  to  these  high  honours 
has  been  false  to  the  trust  reposed  in  him,  save  in  the  one 
notorious  case  of  Trebich -Lincoln.  On  the  other  hand, 
enormous  benefits  to  the  British  Empire  have  accrued  by 
the  Britannicizing  of  talented  and  wealthy  foreigners  who 
have  figured  in  our  Parliament  and  our  Privy  Council. 

I  think  there  ought  to  be  a  national  discrimination.  It 
ought  to  be  as  easy  for  a  United  States  citizen  to  be 
naturalized  a  Briton  as  for  one  of  us  to  be  naturalized  an 
American — on  the  lines  of  our  international  penny  postage. 


II 

NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 


CHAPTER    V 

National    Education 

By  viscount  HALDANE 

In  the  summer  of  19 14  humanity  met  with  a  staggering 
shock.  Of  a  sudden  war  broke  out  without  parallel  in 
history  for  the  magnitude  of  its  scope  and  for  the  extent 
of  the  values  which  it  threatened.  The  destruction  of  life 
and  property  became  as  ruthless  as  it  was  farspread,  yet 
none  of  the  nations  involved  paused  to  look  back.  It  was 
for  all  of  them  a  conflict  of  ideals  and  a  struggle  in  which 
the  individual  was  forced  to  realize  that  the  cause  was 
everything  and  he  himself  was  nothing.  In  this  titanic 
effort  the  violence  and  the  passion  have  deflected  thought 
as  profoundly  as  action. 

Such  is  the  situation,  and  it  is  one  which  inevitably 
gives  rise  to  new  and  far-reaching  problems.  It  is  already 
evident  that  in  the  case  of  each  of  the  nations  engaged  the 
recovery  of  its  old  position  when  the  war  is  over  will 
depend  on  the  possession  of  character  and  of  mind,  of 
resolution  in  action  and  capacity  in  thinking.  It  is  to 
the  development  of  these  among  the  peoples  they  guide 
that  the  national  leaders  may  be  called  on  after  the  war 
to  devote  their  first  thoughts.  In  the  struggle  to  excel 
in  this  development  the  various  nations  will  compete,  and, 
if  success  in  the  competition  is  to  be  attained,  concentra- 
tion and  resolute  effort  will  be  essential.  In  this  country 
we  dare  not  let  time  slip  by  without  taking  action,  if  it 
be  only  in  the  direction  of  clearing  our  thoughts  as  to 
the  course  we  must  adopt.  For  it  is  certain  that  without 
much  preliminary  thought  confusion  and  vagueness  will 
result.  ' 

For  us  the  interests  of  the  coming  generation  are  all 
important.     These   interests   will  be  profoimdly   dependent 

79 


8o  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

on  the  way  in  which  we  educate  those  to  whose  hands  we 
shall  in  the  course  of  nature  have  to  transfer  the  torch. 
The  planning  of  such  education  is  like  the  planning  of 
a  campaign.  It  requires  what  may  be  called  General 
Staff  work  of  a  high  order,  for  without  this  preliminary 
work  indecision  and  waste  will  be  inevitable.  We  have 
been  unwilling  witnesses  in  the  course  of  the  present 
war  to  the  advantages  which  are  attained  when  a  body 
of  picked  military  thinkers  have  for  long  years  been  set 
aside  and  segregated  from  all  direct  concern  with 
administration  and  business,  in  order  that  they  might 
devote  themselves  to  the  organization  of  armies  and  to 
strategical  objects  towards  which  the  instruments  made  for 
the  accomplishment  of  these  objects  could  be  directed. 
Such  work  implies  the  study  of  possible  campaigns  far  in 
advance,  and  systematic  elaboration  of  the  methods  for 
their  prosecution  when  decided  on.  It  has  not  been  our 
strongest  point  to  concentrate  on  thinking  ahead  in  war, 
or,  for  that  matter,  in  affairs  of  a  different  kind.  We 
are  a  good  deal  better  in  this  respect  than  we  used  to 
be.  But  other  countries  have  been  developing  the  habit 
yet  more  rapidly  than  we  have.  Those  who  seek  to  plant 
ideas  here  and  to  water  them  find  that  what  is  planted  is 
of  disappointingly  slow  growth,  and  that  its  life  is  apt  to 
prove  precarious.  To  induce  a  permanent  habit  of  reflec- 
tion and  to  render  it  useful  is  no  easy  task  in  these  islands, 
where  what  Matthew  Arnold  long  ago  called  "  inaptitude 
for  new  ideas  "  is  a  general  defect. 

This  inaptitude  prevails  in  education  not  less  than  in 
other  subjects.  It  is  true  that  if  we  turn  back  to  what 
Matthew  Arnold  himself  and  other  educational  reformers 
wrote  half  a  century  ago  we  shall  see,  by  comparison  with 
the  state  of  matters  to-day,  that  much  has  been  accom- 
plished ;  indeed,  most  of  what  they  asked  for.  The  Act 
of  1870  gave  us  a  general  and  compulsory  system  of 
elementary  education.  The  Act  of  1902  extended  the 
organization  of  this  system  and  much  improved  it,  by 
rendering  it  possible  to  get  free  from  a  technical  rule 
which  limited  what  could  be  legally  taught  in  the  national 
schools.  In  Scotland  the  Education  Act  passed  still  more 
recently  in  1908  has  carried  the  process  a  stage  further, 
with  the  result  that  instruction  of  a  secondary  type  is  more 
widely  provided  there  than  it  is  south  of  the  Tweed. 
Again,   an    immense   advance   has    been    made   throughout 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  8 1 

Great   Britain   in  the  development   of  technical  education. 
Much    of    it    is    given    in   special   schools    and    institutions, 
but  even  in  the  ordinary  schools,  both  public  and  private, 
there  is  increasing   recognition  of  its   value  and  provision 
of  facilities.     Then  there  has  been  a  marked  extension  of 
the  activities  of  the  teachers  in  the  Universities.      Oxford 
and  Cambridge  have  opened  their  doors  to  the  movement 
for  recognizing  Applied  Science  as  among  subjects  which 
may  be  of  a  true  University  type.     But  still  more  striking 
has  been  the   establishment   of  the  new  Universities.       Of 
these  there  is  at  last  a  considerable  number  in  existence. 
What  used  to  be  merely  University  Colleges,  institutions  in 
great  cities  of  interest  only  to  a  comparatively  small  section 
of  the  community  and  inadequately  endowed  and  supported, 
have  been   developed  into   Universities   with  a  high   place 
in   the    city    life   and    with    resources    in   all    cases    largely 
increased.     At  the  outset  there  was  a  good  deal  of  oppo- 
sition to   the   effort   to    get   this   done.      There   was    much 
talk  of  the  danger  of   Lilliputian   Universities  and  of   low 
standards  of  teaching  and  examination.     But  this  question 
was    brought    to    trial    by    the    State    before    a    very    high 
tribunal,  and  a   firm  decision  was   given  in  favour  of  the 
principle.      It   is    remarkable,    as    showing  how   slight    has 
been  the  public  interest  in  education,  that  the  newspapers 
hardly  noticed  and  did  not   report  the  proceedings   which 
took    place    before    the    Special    Committee    of    the    Privy 
Council  which   conducted  a  semi -judicial   inquiry  into  this 
subject  in  the  end  of  1902.     The  occasion  was  the  petition 
of  Liverpool  for  a  charter  of  incorporation  as  a  University 
for    the    University     College.       The    petition    was    keenly 
opposed  by  the  supporters  of  the  old  Victoria  University. 
This   was   little   more  than  an   Examining   Board  at   Man- 
chester which   granted   degrees   to   the   students  of   several 
colleges   in   the   North   of   England,    for   whose   students   it 
conducted    external    examinations,    without    controlling    the 
colleges    or    influencing    the    atmospheres    in    which    these 
students    were    educated.      The    question    was    whether    for 
this  type   of  so-called   Federal   University   there  should  be 
substituted  in   Liverpool  and   Manchester   teaching   Univer- 
sities, where  the  degrees  might  be  given  locally  by  those 
who  had   watched  the   records  as   well  as  the   examination 
papers  of  the  undergraduates.     The  opposition   was  of  an 
influential   character.      It   came   from   men   some  of   whom 
afterwards,   when   the   new   Universities    had   at  last   come 

6 


82  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

into   existence,   threw   themselves   whole-heartedly   on   their 
side .   But  the  resisting  party  was  large  and  was  at  first  of  a 
formidable  character.      Finally  the  matter  was  decided  by 
a  very  remarkable  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  which 
sat  and  heard  counsel  and  witnesses  at  length.     The  late 
Duke  of  Devonshire,   then   President  of  the   Council,   pre- 
sided.     His   colleagues   were   the   ex-Prime   Minister   Lord 
Rosebery,    the    Secretary    for    Scotland,    Lord    Balfour    of 
Burleigh,  Lord  James  of  Hereford,  and  Sir  Edward  Fry. 
The  case  made  for  the  petitioners  was  that  under  the  so- 
called    Federal    system    education    was    being    subordinated 
to   examination  instead   of  examination  being  used   simply 
as  a  means  for  testing  the  reality  and  results  of  teaching 
in  an  academic  atmosphere.     After  hearing  the  parties  for 
three    days    the    Committee    took    time    to    deliberate,    and 
finally,  on  the  loth  of  February  1903,  a  date  which  should 
be    recognized   as    notable   in   the    educational    calendar    of 
this  country,  an  Order  in  Council  was  promulgated  which 
pronounced  that  the  case  presented  by  Liverpool  was  made 
out.     The  principle   was  affirmed,   and  in  addition  it  was 
laid  down  that  the  step  of  granting  the  charters  involved 
issues  of  great  moment  which  should  be  kept  in  view,  and 
for  the  solution  of  which  due  preparation  should  be  made, 
especially  with  respect  to  those  points  upon  which,  having 
regard    to    the    great    importance    of    the   matter,    and    the 
eff'ects  of  any  changes  upon  higher  education  in  the  North 
of  England,  co-operation  was  expedient  between  Universities 
of  a  oommon  type  and  with  cognate  aims. 

The  results  of  thus  laying  down  a  great  principle  soon 
became  apparent.  The  old  University  Colleges  in  Liver- 
pool, Manchester,  Leeds,  and  Sheffield  blossomed  out  into 
teaching  Universities  of  the  new  type,  in  which  the  record 
of  the  individual  undergraduate  coimted  for  much  and  his 
examination  for  his  degree  became,  not  an  end  in  itself, 
but  a  means  to  an  end,  a  test  of  the  fashion  in  which  he 
had  made  use  of  his  opportunities.  Nor  did  matters  stop 
here.  London  had,  by  the  University  of  London  Act  of 
1898,  put  itself  in  a  position  to  contemplate  the  bringing 
together  of  her  colleges  in  a  general  organization  through 
the  establishment  thereafter  of  a  real  teaching  University. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  had  taken  time  by  the  forelock  and  had 
obtained  a  charter  under  which  a  teaching  University 
became  established  in  Birmingham.  Bristol  followed  suit 
some    years  later,  and  Durham  reformed  itself   by  incor- 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  83 

poration  under  a  new  constitution  of  the  colleges  of  the 
neighbouring  industrial  city  of  Newcastle.  Ireland  estab- 
lished two  new  teaching  Universities  in  Dublin  and  Belfast 
respectively,  in  addition  to  the  old  University  of  Dublin. 

Thus  in  England  there  were  set  up  what  amounted  to 
six  newly  constituted  Universities,  together  with  two  more 
that  had  been  largely  reconstituted.  With  the  two  new 
Irish  Universities  an  addition  of  ten  had  been  made  to 
the  old  strength  in  England  and  Ireland.  Wales  had 
previously  established  three  colleges  and  had  developed 
a  little  later  a  University  of  the  federal  type.  Scotland 
had  already  its  four  Universities,  and  St.  Andrews  had 
enlarged  its  scope  by  incorporating  the  University  College 
of  Dundee.  Moreover,  for  all  the  Universities,  excepting 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  which  did  not  desire  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Treasury,  new  grants  of  money  were  made 
by  the  State,  and  through  the  medium  of  these  grants  the 
so-called  Treasury  Committee  and  the  Board  of  Education 
began  to  put  pressure  towards  development  on  modern  lines 
in  the  new  English  Universities.  The  effect  of  this,  even 
on  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  which  remained  independent, 
was  presently  seen  in  the  new  efforts  which  these  older 
Universities  began  to  make  in  the  development  of  their 
teaching  in  Science.  In  other  places,  such  as  Reading, 
University  Colleges  began  to  grow  up.  Besides  all  this, 
under  stimulus  from  the  Board  of  Education  grants,  an 
improvement  took  place  both  in  the  number  and  in  the 
quality  of  the  technical  schools  and  institutions  throughout 
the  country.  In  London  an  entirely  new  departure  was 
made  by  the  establishment  of  the  Imperial  College  of 
Science  and  Technology,  an  institution  which  in  many  points 
resembled  the  great  technical  college  at  Charlottenburg, 
which  is  a  rival  institution  to  the  University  of  Berlin. 

The  foundations  which  had  been  laid  for  London  by  the 
Act  of  1898  remained,  however,  to  be  built  on,  and  this 
necessity  was  recognized  in  the  appointment  of  a  Royal 
Commission  which,  after  four  years  of  investigation,  and 
the  examination  of  numerous  witnesses,  not  only  from  this 
country,  but  from  France,  Germany,  and  America,  reported 
in  191 3.  The  Report  was  an  effort  to  lay  down  a  policy 
for  a  really  great  teaching  University  in  the  metropolis 
of  the  Empire.  The  details  of  this  policy  and  the  scheme 
which  it  recommended  for  developing  the  teaching  side 
of  the  University  were  based  on  certain  general  principles 


84  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY. 

formulated  in  Part  II  of  the  Report.  The  essence  of  these 
principles  was  that  "  while  the  power  of  granting  degrees 
is  one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  all  Universities  it  is 
not  the  real  end  of  their  existence.  The  University  fulfils 
its  end  for  the  nation  and  the  world  partly  by  the  advance- 
ment of  learning,  but  partly  also  by  sending  out  into  many 
of  the  different  paths  of  life  a  constant  stream  of  men 
and  women  who  have  been  trained  by  its  teaching  and 
influenced  by  its  life.  The  object  of  going  to  a  Univer- 
sity is  or  ought  to  be  to  obtain  a  University  education, 
and  the  degree  ought  to  signify  that  this  end  has  been 
attained.  It  is  required  for  practical  purposes  as  the  sign 
and  guarantee  of  a  University  education." 

Substantial  progress  has  been  made  in  the  development 
of  great  University  Colleges  in  London  of  late  years.  The 
Imperial  College,  already  referred  to,  and  the  expansion 
of  the  Bedford  College  for  Women  are  notable  examples 
of  additions  that  have  been  made.  But  until  the  work  of 
the  various  colleges  has  been  adjusted  so  as  not  to  overlap 
unduly,  and  has  been  brought  under  the  common  direc- 
tion of  a  real  governing  body  on  which  the  teachers  have 
a  proper  place,  points  on  which  the  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  insisted,  the  work  of  providing  London  with 
an  adequate  system  of  University  education  will  not  have 
been  accomplished. 

It  is  time  to  return  from  what  is  an  illustration  of  the 
general  problem  as  it  confronts  us  in  practice  to  the 
character  of  the  problem  itself.  And  here  we  come  face 
to  face  with  a  difficulty  of  great  magnitude,  the  virtual 
exclusion  of  the  democracy  as  it  is  to-day  from  almost 
every  chance  of  pursuing  learning. 

How  far  can  education  of  the  University  type  be  made 
available  for  the  general  mass  of  our  population?  It  is 
no  doubt  possible  to  give  the  chance  of  obtaining  it  to 
nearly  all  exceptionally  endowed  boys  and  girls.  Already 
a  good  deal  has  been  accomplished  in  this  direction  by 
means  of  scholarships,  and  a  good  deal  more  is  possible. 
But  at  the  best  this  part  of  the  "  educational  ladder  "  will 
remain  very  narrow.  The  great  majority  of  children,  thanks 
to  the  policy  of  compulsion  adopted  in  1870,  now  obtain 
an  elementary  education.  But  for  the  vast  majority  educa- 
tion stops  soon  after  the  age  of  thirteen  is  attained.  A 
good  many  then  proceed  to  forget  most  of  what  they 
have  learned.     When  I  was  in  charge  of  the  War  Office 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  85 

I  found  that  a  surprising  number  of  recruits  could  not 
read  or  write.  The  reason  was,  not  that  they  had  not 
learned,  but  that  they  had  forgotten  what  they  had  once 
learned.  We  put  this  right  by  seeing  to  the  re-education 
of  our  recruits.  But  the  number  was  significant.  It  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  only  a  small  proportion  of  our  popu- 
lation continue  their  education  after  leaving  the  Elementary 
School.  In  England  out  of  about  2^  millions  of  boys 
and  girls  between  twelve  and  sixteen  nearly  1,100,000  do 
not  go  to  school  at  all.  But  this  is  not  the  worst.  A 
large  proportion  of  those  who  do  go  only  for  a  brief  part 
of  the  period  between  twelve  and  sixteen,  the  bulk  of 
those  who  attend  being  made  up  of  boys  and  girls  who 
continue  till  thirteen  or  fourteen  at  the  Elementary  School. 
Only  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  attend  at  proper 
Secondary  Schools,  and  these  do  not  by  any  means  remain 
there  during  the  whole  of  the  four  years.  About  390 
out  of  every  thousand  between  thirteen  and  sixteen  get  no 
further  education  at  all,  and  the  bulk  of  the  others  get  on 
the  average  very  little.  In  Scotland  the  state  of  things 
is  rather  better,  only  some  280  out  of  every  thousand 
between  these   years   getting  no   further   education. 

When  we  pass  to  the  age  between  sixteen  and  twenty- 
five  what  we  find  is  of  course  much  worse.  Out  of  about 
5,850,000  young  persons  in  England  and  Wales  between 
these  years  of  age  about  5,350,000  get  no  education,  while 
93,000  receive  a  full-time  training  during  some  part  of 
the  period,  and  some  390,000  get  part-time  instruction. 
In  Scotland  the  proportion  of  those  educated  is  again  rather 
better.  Whereas  in  England  917  out  of  every  thousand 
get  no  education  during  this  period,  in  Scotland  832  is 
the  corresponding  number.  In  England  18,000  enter 
University  institutions  (including  Agricultural  Colleges),  in 
Scotland,  with  a  relatively  small  population,  the  entries  are 
7,700.  While  only  three  per  thousand  of  those  between 
sixteen  and  twenty-five  get  some  kind  of  training  of  a 
University  type  in  England,  nearly  ten  in  each  thousand 
get  it  in  Scotland.  The  fignireis  I  have  given  are  of  course 
only  approximate,  but  they  have  been  arrived  at  after  careful 
examination  by  competent  investigators. 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  the  vast  majority  of  our  popu- 
lation are  not  systematically  educated  at  all  after  leaving 
the  Elementary  School.  In  days  like  these,  and  with  a 
Struggle  for  international  supremacy  in  the  application  of 


86  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

knowledge  to  practical  life  threatening  us,  the  fact  is  a 
deplorable  one.  For  it  means  that  if  we  are  to  enter  on 
a  competition,  not  with  Germans  only  but  with  other  nations 
also,  after  this  war  is  over  we  shall  compete  at  a  dis- 
advantage. It  also  means  that  we  are  not  giving  our 
democracy  a  proper  chance  of  supplying  from  its  vast 
reservoir  of  undeveloped  talent  the  help  we  require.  We 
are  as  a  nation  neglecting  the  most  obvious  methods  for 
bringing  the  fittest  to  the  front. 

I  have  already  pointed  out  that  in  the  development  of 
our  system  of  University  education  a  great  deal  has  been 
accomplished    since    the     commencement    of    the    present 
century.     The  educational  authorities  have  done  their  best 
among  a  people  deficient  in  ideas  and  in  interest  in  educa- 
tion.    I  should  add  that  in  the  development  of  our  higher 
technical  schools  in  particular  much  has  been  brought  about . 
In  the   industrial   centres  opportunities  for  technical  learn- 
ing   have    been    of   late    years    provided   on    a    very    large 
scale.      The    Board    of   Education   in    England  and   Wales 
and  the    Education   Department   in   Scotland   have  accom- 
plished much.      In  Ireland  too  the  same  process  has  been 
operative  in  a  somewhat  difi"erent  form.      It  is  instructive 
to  watch  the  tendency  to  bring  the  higher  forms  of  these 
schools   into    relation    with   the    neighbouring    Universities. 
Germany,  in  the  opinion  of  some  of  her  most   competent 
authorities,    has    suff'ered    by    a    sharp    separation    of    the 
Technical   College   from  the   University,   a   result  which   is 
due  to  the  principle  on  which  her  great  system  of  secondary 
schools,  the  preliminary  places  of  training  for  her  students  . 
of    University    age,    has    been    split    up    into    systems    of 
Gymnasia,    Real    Gymnasia,    and    Real-Schulen.      So    com- 
petent a  critic  as  the  late  Professor  Paulsen  has,   I  think, 
dwelt    on    this    mistake.      Fortunately,    we    are    showing    a 
decided  tendency  to  avoid  the  error.     Education  as  a  great 
factor  in  life  is  one  and  indivisible.     That  is  why  a  Univer- 
sity like   Cambridge  is  now  going  to  considerable  lengths 
in  extending  the  ambit  of  the  education  which  it  provides 
to  instruction  in  technical  matters  of  a  kind  which  would 
be  looked   upon   in   Germany  as   belonging  to   a   different 
type  of  institution.     In  Manchester  and  Glasgow  two  great 
technical    colleges   are   being    brought    into    close   relations 
with    the    Universities    of    these    cities.      And    the    same 
tendency  is  apparent  elsewhere. 

The  last  thing  that  I  wish  to  <io  is  to  give  my  fellow- 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  87. 

countrymen  the  impression  that  I  would  have  them  follow 
where  the  German  spirit  leads.  We  have  been  the  witnesses 
in  these  days  not  only  of  ethical  shortcomings  in 
the  ideas  of  the  leaders  of  the  German  nation,  but  of 
sheer  intellectual  failure  to  comprehend.  Germany  has  not 
been  intelligent  in  the  things  that  matter  most,  any  more 
than  she  has  been  moral.  But  none  the  less  she  possesses 
marvellous  capacities  for  organizing,  and  of  these  capaci- 
ties we  should  be  unwise  if  we  failed  to  take  account, 
or  to  watch  what  she  is  about.  She  is  indeed  an  enemy 
from  whom  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  learned  by  study 
of  her  methods.  'I     i     (  j 

Now  I  am  keenly  aware  that  we  are  in  danger  of  over- 
looking the  formidable  character  of  the  organization  which 
Germany  will  presently  bring  to  bear  against  us  in  the 
training  of  those  who  must  be  our  competitors  for  indus- 
trial supremacy.  It  is  in  a  region  different  from  that  of 
which  I  have  just  spoken  that  this  danger  is  greatest. 
I  refer  to  that  region  of  instruction  after  the  years  of 
elementary  training  have  ceased  to  which  I  have  already 
referred  earlier.  Germany  has  realized  that  education  in 
her  great  system  of  Secondary  Schools  can  only  be  for 
the  few,  and  she  has  set  herself  to  solve  the  probleim  of 
how  to  get  over  this  difficulty  in  a  way  which  is  charac- 
teristic. We  have  to  watch  what  she  is  doing  if  we  are 
to  avoid  being  outclassed.  We  should  be  very  foolish 
if  we  did  not  watch  what  she  does  in  the  preparation  of 
artillery.  But  it  is  not  only  in  the  organization  of  artillery 
that  she  has  shown  a  dangerous  capacity  for  preparation 
in  advance.  I  wish  to  point  out  a  serious  peril  to  which 
our  easygoing  attitude  towards  a  great  problem  in  educa- 
tion is  exposing  us  under  present  conditions,  a  problem 
over  the  solution  of  which  Germany,  and  other  countries 
also,  will  try  to  catch  us  unprepared  in  days  that  are 
drawing  near. 

The  sons  of  all  classes  in  this  country  who  are  not 
otherwise  educated  go  for  the  most  part  to  Elementary 
Schools,  where  they  are  taught  till  about  thirteen  on  an 
average,  unless  indeed  they  proceed  earlier  to  a  more 
advanced  place  of  instruction.  The  sons  of  those  who 
can  afford  to  continue  this  education  go  on  to  Secondary 
Schools.  Of  these  the  provision  in  England  is  wholly 
insufficient,  but  in  Scotland  it  is  considerably  more  ex- 
tended.    The  great  majority  of  the  boys  who  go  to  the 


88  NATIONAL^    EFFICIENCY 

Secondary  Schools  remain  there  only  for  a  year  or  so, 
and  of  the  few  that  go  on  by  far  the  greater  number  stay 
only  until  they  are  sixteen  or  seventeen.  The  parents 
who  can  afford  it  continue  the  education  of  a  very  small 
number  of  these  boys  a  little  longer  at  the  Secondary 
School,  and  then  send  them  to  the  University. 

But  the  vast  majority  of  boys  are  the  sons  of  working- 
men   who    cannot   afford   to    keep    them   after    thirteen,    an 
age  at  which  they  may  begin  to  earn.     The  boys  therefore 
either  enter  a  factory  or  some  other  place  of  employmemt, 
or  they  earn  a  livelihood  by  doing  odd  jobs,   or  in  some 
occupation   which   is   open   to    boys   only  and   which   leads 
to  nothing  beyond.     They  may  run  messages  or  sell  news- 
papers  or    find    other    miscellaneous    employment    in  what, 
so  far  as  preparation  for  work  as  adults  is  concerned,  are 
blind  alleys.       Occupation  of  this  kind  rarely  affords  any 
training    for  a  higher   kind   of    work,   and   it   usually   ends 
in  a  life  more  or  less  undirected.     It  is  out  of  this  uncared- 
for    class    that    the    wastrels    of   the    future    emerge.      The 
hooligan    and    the    young     criminal    become    rife    in    its 
numbers.     The  waste  of  potential  man -power  which  might 
have   strengthened   the    State    is    scandalous.      For  it   is   a 
waste  that  is  not  only  great  but  could  have  been  prevented. 
Already  foreign  countries  are  taking  the  matter  in  hand 
with  varying  degrees  of  vigour,  and  in  this  country  there 
are  indications   of  a   coming   attempt   to   grapple   with   the 
problem.     The  London  County  Council  has  made  an  effort 
to  organize  on  lines  of  their  own,  but  they  have  been  much 
hampered  by  the  want  of  any  power  of   compulsion.      In 
Scotland  the  Education  Act  of   1908  has  provided  for  real 
advances     in     the     Scottish     system     of     education.       By 
section  3  a  School  Board  may  provide  any  form  of  educa- 
tion or  instruction   which   is   sanctioned   by  the   Education 
Department.     By  section  7  the  duty  is  imposed  on  parents 
of  providing    efficient    education   for   their    children   up   to 
the  age  of  fourteen.     By  section    10  it  is  made  the  duty 
of  a  School  Board  to  provide  continuation  classes  for  the 
further    instruction    of    young    persons    over    fourteen   "with 
reference  to  the  crafts  and  industries  practised  in  the  dis- 
trict  and    in    certain    other    industries,    as    well    as    in    the 
laws    of    health,    and    to    afford    opportunities    for    suitable 
physical   training.      The   School   Board    may   further  tnake 
bylaws  compelling  attendance  at  such   continuation   classes 
up  to  the  age  of  seventeen.     There  are  also  powers,  con- 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  89 

ferred  by  other  sections,  for  developing  secondary  educa- 
tion, and  for  reforming  the  application  of  educational 
endowments . 

This  remarkable  Statute  is  a  good  way  in  advance  of 
anything  that  has  been  enacted  in  England,  and  it  has  the 
root  of  the  matter  in  it.  As  the  result,  considerable  growth 
has  taken  place.  The  Act  has  done  something  to  demon- 
strate how  much  is  required  in  order  to  set  the  educational 
system  in  the  rest  of  the  country  on  a  proper  footing.  For 
it  has  exhibited  the  principle  of  the  obligation  of  the  State 
to  provide  facilities  for  the  further  education  of  that  great 
mass  of  the  children  of  the  working  classes  who  cannot 
proceed,  as  things  at  present  stand,  to  the  development  of 
the  latent  abilities  which  many  of  them  possess,  and  which 
all  of  them  ought  to  have  the  chance  of  having  developed. 
The  last  thing  the  people  of  this  country  are  likely  to 
do  at  this  moment  is  to  look  willingly  at  the  example  the 
people  of  Germany  are  setting  for  the  solution  of  this 
problem.  But  none  the  less  it  remains  true  that  we  have 
to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  steps  Germany  has  been 
taking  in  this  direction  in  recent  years.  For  if  we  fail 
to  do  so  we  shall  fail  to  prepare  ourselves  for  the  shock 
of  contact  with  a  new  instrument  of  industrial  competi- 
tion. The  trained  workman  may  prove  as  formidable  a 
weight  in  the  balance  as  the  improved  ;machine.  We 
cannot  afford  to  be  behind  in  either. 

I  therefore  turn  to  the  consideration  of  a  new  system 
which  Germany  had  begun  before  the  war  to  call  into 
existence.  I  make  the  preliminary  observation  that  I  have 
no  desire  to  see  this  country  slavishly  copy  German  insti- 
tutions. All  I  am  anxious  about  is  that  we  should  realize 
what  is  going  on  abroad,  not  merely  in  Germany  but  in 
Austria  also,  and  to  some  extent  in  France  and  the  United 
States.  I  will  take  the  German  prototype  as  my  illus- 
tration, because  it  is,  or  was  before  the  war,  being  rapidly 
developed.  We  must  work  out  our  own  educational 
salvation  in  our  own  way,  but  this  we  cannot  accomplish 
unless  we  provide  ourselves  with  full  knowledge  of  what 
we  have  to  guard  against  in  advances  that  are  being  made 
by  our  rivals. 

The  most  definite  attempt  made  in  any  country  at  a 
thorough  organization  of  the  continuation  school  on  lines 
adapted  to  the  necessities  of  special  trades  is  that  carried 
out   in    various    parts    of    Germany    on   the    inspiration    of 


90  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

Dr.  Kerschensteiner,  the  Director  of  Education  in  Munich. 
The  problem  to  be  faced  was  how  to  find  something  better 
than  the  old  general  continuation  school  for  the  boys  and 
girls  who  left  the  primary  school  at  fourteen.  Dr. 
Kerschensteiner  is  a  man  with  many  fine  ideals.  In  his 
writings  I  have  never  come  across  a  trace  of  the  influ- 
ence of  writers  such  as  Nietzsche  or  even  Treitschke.  On 
the  contrary,  his  books  are  full  of  insistence  on  the  necessity 
of  genuine  ethical  ideals.  "Instruction,"  he  says  ("The 
Schools  and  the  Nation,"  English  Translation,  p.  13),  "in 
matters  of  moral  import  is  ineffective  everywhere  when  it 
is  not  combined  with  practical  exercise  or  custom.  In 
this  point  of  exercise  and  custom  the  public  schools  of 
England  and  the  colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  are 
far  in  advance  of  us.  We  Germans  always  believe  that 
we  can  effect  all  school  education  by  means  of  explana- 
tions, by  words  or  books,  through  mere  lectures  and 
addresses  of  all  kinds.  That  is  certainly  the  most  con- 
venient and  the  cheapest  method  of  public  education.  It 
is,  moreover,  not  quite  fruitless,  provided  that  the  seeds 
fall  on  a  mind  well  prepared  by  home  or  other  influences. 
When  this  is  not  the  case,  however,  the  method  is  of  little 
value.  The  training  of  a  people  demands  more.  It  must 
accustom  the  boys  and  girls  to  direct,  as  far  as  their 
nature  allows,  not  only  their  thoughts  and  feelings  but 
also  their  actions  in  all  critical  positions  towards  the  service 
of  common  interests.  But  this  only  takes  place  through 
work,  through  real  practical  work,  whether  in  a  school 
organization  or  in  practical  life.  ...  I  should  like,  there- 
fore, to  state  the  problem  of  popular  education  in  this 
form  :  it  is  the  systematic  training  and  organization  of 
the  people  to  take  pleasure  in  active  constructive  work  for 
the  common  good." 

The  author  of  "  The  Schools  and  the  Nation  "  places 
highest,  of  course,  the  education  which  proceeds  through 
the  Secondary  School  to  its  culmination  in  University  life. 
But  his  problem  is  how  to  make  the  principle  just  stated, 
which  underlies  this  as  well  as  all  other  forms  of  educa- 
tion, apply  to  the  education  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  working  class.  They  cannot  continue  their  education 
after  fourteen  imless  it  be  through  the  medium  of  special 
training  in  their  own  calling,  training  which  will  pay  for 
itself.  Can  such  training  be  so  organized  as  at  once  to 
produce,   when   adult   life   is    reached,   industrial  efficiency 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  91 

of  high  value  to  the  individual  and  the  State,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  real  educational  value? 

The  method  actually  adopted  in  Germany  for  the  solution 
of   this   problem    is    the    substitution   of   the   special    tradei 
continuation  school  for  the  old  general  continuation  school, 
and    the    making    of    such    education    compulsory    up    to 
eighteen.     The    future   workman   is   asked    on  leaving   the 
elementary  school  or  before  that  time   to  choose  a  trade. 
He  then   enters  the  service   of  an  employer  in  that  trade. 
He    works    as    an    apprentice    at    a    low    wage.     But    the 
employer  is  bound  by  law  to  send  him  to  the  appropriate 
special    trade    school    for    about    nine    hours    altogether    in 
each  week.      In  that  school  the  boy  or  girl  is  taught  the 
trade.     But  the  teaching  of  the  trade  gives  various  oppor- 
tunities   for   imparting    knowledge    of    a    wider    kind.      In 
Munich,    just    before   the   war,    the   population  of    600,000 
included   between    9,000   and    10,000   apprentices.      These 
were  in  compulsory  attendance  at  separate  trade  continua- 
tion schools   for  eight  to  ten  hours  a  week,   taken  out  of 
working  hours.     There  were  fifty-six  of  these  separate  trade 
schools.     The  number  was  not  so   formidable  as  it  looks, 
for   a    good    many    schools    were    housed   together    in    one 
building    and    the    cost    of    running    them   was    not    large. 
Of  the   fifty -six  special   trade   schools    seventeen  were   de- 
voted to  metal -work.     They  included  instruction  for  smiths 
and   fitters    for    the   building    trades,    art  smiths,    machine - 
builders,    craftsmen    in    delicate    machine    and    mechanical 
work,  mechanics,   fine  mechanics,  and  also   for  gunsmiths, 
smiths  and  wheelwrights,  jewellers,  gold  and  silver  workers, 
plumbers,   gas,    water,  and   electric  Light   fitters,  and   metal 
spinners,  clock  and  watchmakers,  and  tinsmiths.    For  wood 
working  there  were  seven  schools,  which  provided  for  future 
carpenters  and  cabinet-makers,   wood  turners,   coopers  and 
cask  makers,  and  sculptors  in  wood  and  ivory.     Then  there 
were  for  the  building  trades  seven  schools.     These  provided 
for  bricklayers   and    carpenters,    sculptors    in   stone,    stucco 
workers  and  stonemasons,  potters,  stone  setters,  workers  in 
I>orcelain  and  earthenware,  upholsterers,  painters,  decorators 
and    paperhangers,     decorative     painters,     chimney-sweeps, 
glaziers,    painters    on    glass,    porcelain,    and    enamel.      For 
the    graphic    trades    there    were    four    schools,    for    litho- 
graphers,   photographers,    half-tone    zinc    engravers,    book 
printers,    and    compositors.      For    the    food    and    provision 
trades  there   were  six   schools,   for   bakers,  butchers,   con- 


92  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

fectioners,  wine  and  restaurant  keepers.  For  the  clothing 
trades  there  were  four  schools,  extending  to  shoemakers, 
tailors  and  furriers,  hairdressers  and  wigmakers,  tanners 
and  glovemakers .  For  agriculture  and  the  vehicular  trades 
there  were  two  schools,  which  included  gardeners,  cab  and 
taxi-cab  drivers.  For  paper  and  leather  work  there  were 
two  schools,  providing  for  bookbinders  and  cardboard 
workers,  saddlers,  trunkmakers,  and  glovers.  For  shop- 
keepers there  were  two  schools,  extending  to  druggists, 
grocers,  colourmen,  and  other  businesses.  There  were  also 
schools  for  musicians,  clerks,  and  others  who  had  elected 
for  work  which  was  not  of  the  artisan  type.  A  school 
was  grouped  out  of  not  less  than  twenty  apprentices.  These 
figures  I  (have  taken  from  Dr.  Kerschensteiner's  own  book. 
But  there  is  a  great  deal  of  further  information  on  the 
subject  in  another  valuable  work,  "  The  Problem  of  the 
Continuation  School,"  by  Messrs.  Best  and  Ogden,  which 
is  based  on  personal  investigation.  This  book  explains 
more  fully  than  Dr.  Kerschensteiner's  work  does  how  the 
boys  are  induced  to  select  a  trade,  and  why,  in  a  city  of 
600,000  inhabitants  like  Munich,  all  but  8  per  cent,  of 
the  boys  go  straight  from  the  elementary  schools  to  definite 
trades.  The  reason  is  that  in  the  eighth  year  of  educa- 
tion in  the  elementary  school  the  boy  of  thirteen  goes  to 
an  "  eighth-year  class,"  in  which  he  is  taken  to  the  work- 
shops of  the  special  trade  schools  and  is  there  encouraged 
to  form  a  taste  for  a  special  kind  of  work.  Those  that 
do  not  so  elect  go  to  a  general  continuation  school.  The 
outcome  has  been  that  rather  less  than  8  per  cent,  choosiei 
no  trade  or  go  to  "blind  alley"  occupations.  "The 
children,"  writes  Dr.  Kerschensteiner,  whom  the  authors 
quote,  "  had  tasted  the  joy  of  solid  practical  work,  and 
the  shunning  of  skilled  occupation  was  at  an  end."  It 
appears  that  the  mode  of  attraction  is  the  creative  work 
which  they  are  allowed  to  initiate  and  occupy  themselves 
with  in  the  laboratories  and  workshops  of  the  trade  schools. 
The  teachers  look  after  and  help  them,  but  they  are  left 
free  as  much  as  possible.  When  they  enter  an  apprentice- 
ship this  takes  the  form  of  an  undertaking  that  they  shall 
be  taught  their  trade,  and  the  "  taught  "  worker  is  reckoned 
higher  socially  than  the  untaught.  The  obligation  of  the 
employer  is  of  a  very  general  and  varying  kind,  yet  it  is 
carried  out.  It  may  last  for  twelve  months  or  it  may 
extend  to  four  years.     But  the  employer  has  to  do  yvh^X 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  93 

he  has  bargained  to  do,  and  may  be  fined  if  he  fails.  The 
conclusion  of  the  period  of  apprenticeship  entitles  the  young 
workman,  if  he  has  been  satisfactory  in  school  and  factory, 
to  a  certificate  that  he  is  a  qualified  journeyman.  Later 
on  he  may  attain  to  the  status  and  certificate  of  a  master 
workman.  The  trade  guild  looks  after  all  these  matters 
in  each  trade  and  locality.  The  distinction  aimed  at 
throughout  is  one  between  those  who  are  "  untaught  " — 
i.e.  exploited  for  the  gain  of  the  employer — ^and  those  who 
are  "taught" — i.e.  prepared  with  a  view  to  gain  for  the 
community . 

The  case  of  a  young  brassworker  may  be  taken  as  illus- 
trating the  system.  He  has  to  attend  the  special  school 
for  four  years,  during  the  first  three  for  seven  hours  a 
week,  and  during  the  last  for  eight  hours.  His  education 
in  his  special  trade  school  includes  trade  arithmetic  and 
book-keeping,  business  composition  essays  and  reading, 
citizenship,  sensible  living  and  hygiene,  information  about 
trades,  goods,  and  tools,  drawing  and  practical  work. 
Religious  instruction  is  also  given.  For  the  first  two  years 
no  practical  work  is  taught  in  the  school,  for  the  scholar 
is  learning  in  the  workshop.  In  the  last  two  years  he 
gets  two  or  three  hours  of  practical  work  of  a  higher 
grade  than  he  is  likely  to  get  in  the  workshop  where  he 
is  employed.  The  hygienic  instruction  takes  the  form  not 
only  of  special  instruction  in  hygiene,  but  also  of  gymnastics 
and  suitable  games. 

As  to  the  cost,  Messrs.  Best  and  Ogden  report  that  while 
Birmingham,  with  830,000  inhabitants,  spends  £777,000 
a  year  on  its  schools,  Munich,  with  its  600,000  inhabitants, 
spends  £600,000  altogether.  The  employers  give  a 
good  deal  of  assistance  in  kind,  considering  that  it  pays 
them  to  do  so.  The  result,  according  to  the  authors  of 
"  The  Problem  of  the  Continuation  School,"  appears  to 
bear  this  out.  "We  saw,"  they  say  (p.  13),  "youths 
making  scale -balances  for  laboratory  work  (those  square 
chemical  balances  enclosed  in  a  glass  case  for  delicate 
weighing).  They  made  them  throughout  in  the  school 
(cases,  balances,  and  weights) .  We  saw  them  at  work 
adjusting  the  weights  which  they  had  made  to  the  delicacy 
of  5  milligrams  ;  boys  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years 
of  age  made  one  hundred  of  these  scale -balances  for  their 
elementary  schools  to  use  in  their  laboratories.  Purchased 
in  a  'shop  they  would  cost  £3  ids.  each,  while  made  in  the 


94  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

school  the  cost  was  only  17s.  each.  This  reminds  us  of  a 
Birmingham  buyer  of  such  balances  who  had  placed  a  large 
order  in  Germany,  and  who  declared  it  was  impossible  to 
place  the  order  in  this  country  jat  anything  like  a  reasonable 
competitive  figure." 

In  the  fifty-six  trade  schools  of  Munich  there  are 
about  150  teachers  exclusively  attached  to  the  schools, 
and  about  300  more  who  give  lessons  there  in  addition  to 
other  work.  "  The  teachers,"  report  Messrs.  Best  and 
Ogden,  "  are  recruited  from  all  kinds  of  professions  and 
vocations.  Academic  and  normal  school-teachers  co- 
operate with  master  workmen,  journeymen,  artisans,  and 
agriculturists,  and  they  exert  an  excellent  influence  on  each 
other.  The  artisan,  the  master,  and  the  journeyman  learn 
to  respect  the  schoolmaster,  and  the  schoolmaster  learns  to 
respect  the  master  workman,  who  is  engaged  with  him 
on  the  same  educational  problem."  The  authors  lay  stress 
on  a  feature  which  they  appear  to  have  observed  particu- 
larly. "  Teaching  in  drawing  and  arithmetic  is  carefully 
associated  with  practical  instruction.  Nothing  is  drawn 
that  has  not  been  made  in  the  workshop.  Thus  the  drawing 
is  made  interesting  even  to  the  boy  who  has  no  particular 
impulse  to  attempt  it.  Moreover,  any  process  in  work  or 
construction  is  followed  out  by  figures.  It  is  by  making 
out  estimates  and  bills  that  the  pupil  learns  the  significance 
for  cost  of  production  of  the  material  used  and  the  time 
expended.  After  the  same  fashion  principles  in  physics 
and  chemistry,  so  far  as  the  work  illustrates  them,  are 
taught  and  made  interesting.  Indeed,  it  is  part  of  the 
general  system  of  teaching  to  use  every  opportunity  of 
stimulating  interest  in  wider  kinds  of  knowledge,  within 
sight  of  which  the  pupil  is  brought  in  the  course  of  his 
practical  work." 

In  his  book  on  *'  Education  and  Social  Progress  " 
Dr.  Morgan,  the  Principal  of  the  Provincial  Training 
College  in  Edinburgh,  has  drawn  attention  to  the  difference 
between  compulsory  continuation  classes  and  trade  schools 
strictly  so  called.  In  the  latter  the  yoimg  worker  is  taughit 
from  the  foimdation  all  the  departments  of  work  in  a  certain 
trade  or  skilled  occupation,  including  the  use  of  all  the 
hand  and  machine  tools  required  for  the  processes  involved. 
In  schools  of  this  special  character  the  entire  apprentice- 
ship is  carried  out,  and  the  classrooms  resemble  workshops. 
Now   it   is   obvious   that   such    schools,   although   they   do 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  95 

exist  in  Germany  and  elsew'.iere,  can  never  be  numerous. 
The  cost  and  complication  are  prohibitive,  and  they  cannot 
be  made  a  general  substitute  for  apprenticeship.  They 
may,  as  Dr.  Morgan  points  out,  be  necessary  for  a  few 
special  crafts.  But,  as  he  truly  adds,  for  the  great  mass  of 
workers  what  is  really  wanted  is  "a  well -developed  day 
continuation  school  system  for  the  various  trades,  with  a 
thorough  mutual  understanding  as  to  the  part  of  the  train- 
ing to  be  done  by  the  school  and  workshop  respectively," 
It  is  upon  this  ideal  that  Germany  seems  to  have  concen- 
trated. Dr.  Morgan  observes  that  in  twelve  of  the  States 
which  make  up  the  Germanic  Empire  every  apprentice  has 
to  attend  a  continuation  school  for  from  six  to  eleven 
hours  a  week  during  the  whole  period  of  his  apprentice- 
ship or  until  the  completion  of  his  eighteenth  year,  and  his 
certificate  as  a  journeyman  is  only  granted  if  he  has  satis- 
fied the  necessary  educational  tests.  In  ten  of  the  Stajtes 
there  is  '*  local  option  "  regarding  continuation  school 
attendance,  and  in  only  four  States  is  attendance  voluntary. 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  from  Dr.  Morgan  and  from  other 
sources,  that  in  Edinburgh,  where,  as  I  have  already  stated, 
the  School  Board  has  taken  advantage  of  the  powers  con- 
ferred by  the  Act  of  1908,  the  curricula  and  practical  details 
of  the  work  in  the  continuation  schools  that  have  been  estab- 
lished is  submitted  to  consultative  committees,  consisting 
of  representatives  of  employers  and  employees  in  the  dis- 
trict, as  well  as  of  the  teachers  and  the  educational 
authority.  There  appear  to  be  in  Edinburgh  about  twenty 
of  these  advisory  committees,  each  representing  a  different 
trade. 

Lest  it  should  be  thought  that  I  am  exaggerating  the 
seriousness  of  the  advance  in  democratic  education  which 
is  taking  place  abroad,  I  will  quote  another  set  of 
observers.  And  I  will  quote  pretty  fully,  even  at  the 
risk  of  repetition,  for  I  am  anxious  to  bring  home  to 
those  who  do  not  realize  what  is  taking  place  abroad  its 
seriousness  for  ourselves.  I  have  already  mentioned  that 
the  London  County  Council  has  set  itself  to  the  task  of 
initiating  the  new  system  here.  In  1914,  just  before  th^ 
war.  Sir  Robert  Blair,  its  Education  Officer  and  a  man 
of  great  ability,  made  a  Report,  based  largely  on  infor- 
mation obtained  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Small,  the  London  County 
Council  Organizer  of  Education  for  boys,  as  to  trade  and 
technical  education  in  France  and  Germany.     This  Report 


96  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY, 

is  a  valuable  and  instructive  document.  It  is  published, 
and  it  ought  to  be  studied  by  those  who  are  concerned 
about  our  deficiencies.  Meantimie  I  extract  from  it  what 
follows . 

Sir  Robert  Blair  begins  by  saying  that  the  facts  and 
the  observations  made  by  Mr.  Smail  after  visits  to  Paris, 
Munich,  Leipzig,  and  Berlin  deserve  the  most  serious  con- 
sideration, especially  those  relating  to  Germany.  The 
Paris  special  schools  are  mainly  professional  trade  schools 
which  train  foremen,  leaving  these  to  train  the  workmen  in 
the  shops  ;  whereas  the  German  continuation  schools  sup- 
plement apprenticeship  and  are  aiming  at  the  uplifting  of 
every  man  in  his  fourfold  aspect  of  member  of  his  trade, 
member  of  his  family,  member  of  the  community,  and 
member  of  the  State.  In  Berlin,  Munich,  Leipzig,  and 
other  towns  the  organized  efforts  of  the  State  and  the 
Municipality  are  reaching  nearly  every  boy  and  many  girls 
in  a  way  that  would  hardly  be  credited  in  England,  but  for 
the  fact  that  experienced  officers  have  seen  it  in  opera- 
tion. The  British  method  makes  the  best  top.  It  also 
produces  the  worst  tail,  and  it  does  not  do  much  for  the 
general  raising  of  the  great  mass  of  workers.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  London  evening  student  makes  on 
the  average  fifty  hours'  attendance  per  session,  while  the 
German  boy  makes  240.  The  German  boy  must  take  a 
three  or  four  years  continuation  course  ;  the  English  boy 
may  take  as  much  or  as  little  as  he  pleases,  and  75  per 
cent,  between  fourteen  and  seventeen  either  cannot  or  do 
not  please  even  for  one  year. 

Such  is  the  substance  of  the  preliminary  observations 
of  Sir  Robert  Blair  in  submitting  Mr.  Smail's  Report  on 
what  he  had  found  on  the  Continent.  I  now  turn  to  the 
Report  itself. 

As  regards  Germany,  Mr.  Smail  found  evidence  every- 
where that  she  was  aiming  at  building  up  a  great  industrial 
nation,  partly  by  the  thorough  training  of  the  leaders  as 
experts,  partly  by  the  training  of  the  middle -grade  workers, 
such  as  draughtsmen  and  foremen,  as  thoroughly  accurate 
and  careful  managers,  and  partly  by  the  training  of  all 
grades  of  workmen  and  mechanics  as  skilled  craftsmen 
and  good  citizens.  France,  on  the  other  hand,  is  aiming 
at  industrial  excellence,  partly  by  the  training  of  highly 
skilled  experts,  and  partly  by  the  training  of  those  who 
should  become   the  best   workmen  and   the  best   foremen. 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  97 

This  is  a  good  exercise  of  the  power  of  the  State,  but  it 
is  not  so  systematic  or  thorough  as  the  German  method. 
Our  own  method,  on  the  other  hand,  is  individualistic.  We 
aim  in  Great  Britain  at  providing  individual  excellence, 
partly  by  offering  avenues  of  training  and  chances  for 
willing  and  persevering  workmen  to  climb  the  industrial 
ladder.  "  It  is  necessary,"  says  Mr.  Smail,  "to  bear  these 
ideals  in  mind  while  considering  any  organization  for 
technical  education,  for,  while  these  ideals  have  probably 
not  been  expressed,  their  influence  has  undoubtedly  been 
behind  the  progress  made.  The  German  ideal  may  be 
termed  the  long  view  which  must  eventually  lead  the 
German  nation  to  and  maintain  it  in  a  foremost  place  as 
an  industrial  world  power.  The  British  method  may  be 
regarded  as  more  philanthropic  than  patriotic  ;  the  ideal 
is  admirable,  but  the  bulk  of  the  nation's  workers  are 
not  catered  for  by  this  ideal,  and  on  the  bulk  of  the 
workers  much  of  the  material  prosperity  of  a  nation  must 
depend."  Mr.  Smail  observes  that  expenditure  on  extended 
educational  effort  may  be  regarded  and  justified  as  a 
national  investment,  for  the  character  and  capacity  of  its 
people  is  the  nation's  greatest  asset. 

In  order,  he  says,  to  appreciate  the  character  of  the 
German  effort  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the  pro- 
vision that  Germany  has  already  made  for  the  training  of 
the  professional  experts  in  the  Universities,  Technical  High 
Schools  (another  form  of  teaching  of  a  University  type), 
and  other  special  institutions.  There  are  in  that  country, 
as  he  points  out  in  an  appendix,  twenty-two  Universities 
and  eleven  Technical  High  Schools,  in  addition  to  three 
Mining  Academies,  four  Forestry  Academies,  four  Agri- 
cultural High  Schools,  five  Veterinary  High  Schools,  six 
Commercial  High  Schools  (somewhat  resembling,  I 
believe,  the  London  School  of  Economics,  which  was 
a  pioneer  institution),  sixteen  Academies  of  Art,  and 
eleven  Academies  of  Music.  The  total  of  these  teaching 
institutions  of  a  University  or  post -secondary  type  is  eighty- 
two,  and  they  educate  on  an  average  82,000  fully 
qualified  and  22,000  other  students.  In  addition  to 
those  in  the  list  above  given  there  are  other  schools 
for  Administration,  Medicine,  etc.  The  German  plan 
of  thus  training  leaders  has  contributed  much  to  clearing 
the  way  "  for  a  closer  scrutiny  of  the  middle  and  lower 
technical   and    trade   problems   of   education.      As  a   result 

7 


98  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

the  educational  world  in  Germany  is  in  a  state  of  intense 
vitality  in  the  solution  of  the  lower  technical  problems." 
In  these  matters  the  United  States  are  profiting  by  a  study 
of  the  German  example,  and  we  are  threatened  from  that 
side  of  the  Atlantic  with  new  movements. 

One  of  the  things  which  the  Kerschensteiner  method 
promises  to  accomplish  is  the  solution  of  the  apprentice- 
ship question.  Germany  has  dealt  with  this  matter  by 
law  ;  in  France  and  England  it  has  lapsed  into  an  un- 
satisfactory condition.  "There  is,"  says  Mr.  Smail,  "an 
organized  system  by  means  of  which  an  apprentice  is 
sheltered  by  the  State  during  his  period  of  apprenticeship, 
and  has  opportunity  for  learning  his  trade  in  the  workshop 
under  a  competent  person,  as  well  as  securing  in  the  con- 
tinuation class  a  knowledge  of  the  technology  of  his  trade. 
The  reduction  of  the  period  of  apprenticeship  to  four  years 
is  probably  a  vital  factor  in  the  continuance  of  the  system. 
The  British  schemes,  which  require  five,  and  in  some  cases 
seven,  years  of  apprenticeship,  are  not  generally  drafted 
in  the  interests  of  the  boy,  but  rather  to  secure  a  limita- 
tion in  entry  to  the  trade.  It  is  not  always  the  case  that 
apprentices  are  placed  under  the  charge  of  some  one  com- 
petent and  willing  to  teach  them  the  trade.  Further,  boys 
are  generally  allowed  to  pick  up  the  technology  of  their 
trade  as  they  themselves  may  please.  The  number  who 
do  this  seriously  from  the  beginning  of  their  apprentice- 
ship is  extremely  small." 

Turning  to  the  demand  for  unskilled  boy  labour  in  great 
cities,  which  is  always  considerable,  the  Report  quotes  Dr. 
Cooley,  of  Chicago,  as  estimating  that  the  proportion  of 
unskilled  boy  workers  is  in  Mimich  lo  per  cent.,  in  Berlin 
40  per  cent.,  in  London  68  per  cent.,  and  in  Chicago 
85  per  cent.  But,  then,  in  Germany  unskilled  boy  workers 
are  required  to  attend  general  continuation  classes,  land 
separate  courses  are  provided  for  them,  and  they  pass 
gradually  into  skilled  trades.  By  consulting  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  employers  Berlin  manages  to  secure  an  adequate 
attendance  at  continuation  classes  of  about  90  per  cent, 
of  the  boys.  The  Report  proceeds  to  give  a  striking 
instance  of  the  way  in  which  vocational  instruction  of  this 
character  is  used  as  a  medium  for  a  more  general  educa- 
tion. The  apprentices  to  the  boot  and  shoe  makers  in 
Munich  are  taught  the  position  of  the  whole  trade  in 
Germany,   its  localization,   size  and  growth  ;    the  character 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  99 

of  the  manufactured  materials  in  use  and  their  orig^in  ;  the 
imports  and  exports  and  output  of  foreign  countries,  with 
diagrams  and  curves  which  the  teacher  makes  interesting 
by  concrete  explanation,  concrete  questions  being  shown 
to  turn  on  principles  of  general  application.  It  concludes 
by  saying  that  a  solution  of  the  apprenticeship  problem 
may  be  looked  for  with  the  aid  of  definitely  organized 
compulsory  continuation  classes.  It  warns  the  public  here 
that  Germany  is  systematically  training  the  whole  nation  in 
different  ways  for  different  spheres,  and  that  the  effect  of 
this  in  a  generation  will  have  far-reaching  consequences. 

The  conclusion  to  which  the  story  that  I  have 
endeavoured  to  record  points  is  that  the  new  century 
is  witnessing  the  development  of  a  fresh  phase  in  educa- 
tion, a  phase  which  is  likely  not  only  to  add  to  the 
practical  efficiency  and  power  of  the  working  classes,  but 
to  afford  the  hope  of  at  least  partially  redressing  the  in- 
justice to  which  they  have  hitherto  been  subjected  by 
having  the  avenues  to  general  knowledge  and  education 
closed  early  in  life.  There  are  probably  yet  more  possibili- 
ties latent  in  vocational  training  than  either  we  or  even  tWe 
foreign  nations,  which  in  this  matter  are  in  advance  of  us, 
have  yet  discovered.  Even  if  a  certain  lowering  of  educa- 
tional ideals  were  involved  by  such  training  it  would  still 
be  better  to  have  something  substantial  than  the  alternativte' 
which  in  practice  is  nothing  at  all.  But  it  is  far  from  clear 
that  lowering  of  ideals  is  implied.  The  new  movement 
which  owes  so  much  to  the  Workers'  Educational  Associa- 
tion, and  the  devoted  labours  of  men  like  Mr.  Mansbridge, 
and  the  stimulus  which  the  new  movement  is  receiving 
from  University  extension  classes,  show  that  the  atmosphere 
in  which  training  is  given  mav  be  purified  from  materialism 
and  rendered  of  a  high  quality.  It  is  to  the  continuation 
of  these  movements,  in  the  last  mentioned  of  which  this 
country  is  in  the  van  of  progress,  that  we  have  to  look 
for  the  solution  of  one  of  the  greatest  problems  of  our 
time.  For  it  is  not  too  mUch  to  say  that  on  the  level  of 
intelligence  in  the  working  classes  of  this  country  and 
on  the  capacity  for  initiative  which  seminal  ideals  alone 
can  give  depend  much  of  our  prospects  in  the  future. 
That  was  whv  the  Royal  Comrnission  on  University  Educa- 
tion in  London  recommended  (in  paragraphs  409,  410, 
and  411  of  its  Renort,  and  in  the  final  scheme  set  out  at 
page   '207)    that    the    University -extension    tutorial    classes 


loo  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

conducted  in  connection  with  the  Workers'  Educational 
Association  should  be  developed,  and  a  centre  provided 
in  the  Goldsmith's  College,  where  the  most  inspiring 
teachers  could  lecture,  and  where  debates  and  social 
meetings  could  be  held.  "  At  first,"  the  Report  said,  "no 
doubt  the  classes  of  the  Workers'  Educational  Association 
were  devoted  to  a  study  of  those  sides  of  history  and 
theory  which  seemed  to  bear  most  closely  upon  the  needs 
and  difficulties  of  the  worker  in  the  modern  industrial  State. 
That  was  right  and  proper,  for  men  and  women  of  adult 
years,  not  less  than  younger  students,  will  do  their  best 
work  where  their  interests  lie.  Already,  however,  a 
demand  is  growing  up  for  courses  in  literature  and  other 
subjects  of  value  for  their  time  of  leisure,  and  we  believe 
this  demand  will  grow,  until  the  students  of  the  Workers' 
Educational  Association  will  realize  one  of  the  greatest 
truths  a  LIniversity  can  enforce,  the  essential  unity  of  know- 
ledge. We  think  the  University  should  consider  the  work 
it  is  doing  for  these  men  and  women  one  of  the  most 
serious  and  important  of  its  services  to  the  Metropolis." 

In  order  to  cover  the  main  ground  in  this  review  of 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages  to  which  the  nation  is 
subjected  by  reason  of  the  condition  of  our  system  of 
education,  it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  certain  other  features 
of  that  system.  A  national  system  it  is  not — that  is  to  say, 
it  is  not  a  system  fashioned  in  the  light  of  a  general 
and  dominating  conception  of  a  whole,  a  thought-out  and 
comprehensive  purpose  which  has  throughout  been  kept 
in  view.  Our  system  has  grown  up  sporadically.  This 
has  not  been  due  to  the  want  of  would-be  reformers  who 
knew  what  they  sought  after.  It  has  been  due  to  the 
want  of  ideas  in  the  nation  itself.  No  political  leaders  can 
get  far  forward  without  a  certain  receptivity  to  work  upon, 
and  this  receptivity  has  been  wanting.  The  great  bulk 
of  our  people,  well  to  do  as  well  as  poor,  have  hitherto 
been  indifferent  to  effort  at  educational  reform  in  a  large 
sense.  Perhaps  this  world  crisis,  with  the  practical  and 
sharp  lessons  which  it  is  teaching,  may  awaken  us,  and 
convince  the  country  that  it  is  on  the  quality  of  its  own 
workers,  and  on  nothing  short  of  that,  that  it  must  rely 
if  it  is  to  hold  its  own.  We  have  been  too  much  in  the 
habit  of  acting  as  though  form  could  be  divorced  from 
substance,  and  wisdom  be  embodied  in  a  few  epigrams. 
The  type   of   mind   on   which   the  older   Universities   have 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  1 01. 

set  most  store  has  tended  to  develop  this  shortcoming. 
Our  future  rulers  are  trained  admirably  in  the  old  Univer- 
sities for  the  forum  and  the  senate.  For  concentration 
on  organization  and  method  they  have  not  been  adequately 
trained.  Parliament  is  a  mirror  in  which  this  shortcoming 
has  been  reflected,  and  Cabinets  in  their  turn  have  reflected 
the  mind  of  Parliament. 

One  of  the  most  serious  deficiencies  in  our  system  is 
to  be  witnessed  in  the  condition  of  the  secondary  schools. 
What  I  refer  to  are  the  schools  in  which  our  middle  classes 
are  mainly  educated  or  ought  to  be  so.  The  great  Public 
Schools  have  no  doubt  marked  deficiencies.  Of  these  much 
has  been  heard,  and  more  is  likely  to  be  heard  hereafter. 
But  the  Public  School  system  of  training  the  boys  who 
attend  them  to  rule  themselves  and  so  learn  to  rule  others 
later  on  has  excited  a  good  deal  of  admiration  on  the 
Continent.  There  is  nothing  in  either  France  or  Germany 
quite  comparable  to  this  system  of  training,  and  foreigners 
are  well  aware  of  it.  What  I  am  really  referring  to  is 
the  secondary  school  of  a  less  well -understood  type,  the 
type  of  the  school  on  which  the  bulk  of  the  middle  classes 
have  to  rely.  The  school  of  this  type  has  been  little 
looked  after  by  the  State,  and  there  is  no  clear  view  of 
its  function.  The  Education  Act  of  1902  has  rendered 
a  great  deal  of  reform  possible  by  the  establishment  of 
new  authorities  with  wider  functions  than  the  old  School 
Boards.  But  even  in  this  direction  much  remains  to  be 
accomplished  before  it  can  be  hoped  that  a  imited  and 
harmonious  effort  will  be  made  throughout  the  country. 
Then,  again,  no  adequate  provision  exists  for  freeing  educa- 
tional endowments  from  the  grasp  of  the  "  dead  hand," 
often  maintained  for  a  period  far  exceeding  that  which 
the  law  against  perpetuities  allows  in  the  case  of  private 
trusts.  An  Educational  Endowments  Commission  is 
wanted  south  of  the  border  to  do  this  work,  as  it 
has  been  done  in  Scotland.  Further,  the  secondary  schools 
must  be  of  several  types.  There  ought  to  be  more  variety 
in  these  than  exists  at  present,  and  the  grading  should 
be  more  distinct.  The  higher  secondary  schools  lought, 
as  a  definite  function,  to  have  the  duty  of  preparing 
students  for  the  University.  Instead  of  doing  so,  they 
stop  short  and  leave  a  gap.  The  result  is  that  the  Univer- 
sity is  hampered  in  its  work  by  having  to  spend  much  of 
its  energy  in  doing  the  work  of  preparing  the  imdergraduate 


I02  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

by  preliminary  studies  for  his  University  training  proper. 
We  are  not  alone  in  this  respect.  In  the  United  States 
the  difficulty  has  been  felt  so  deeply  that  the  American 
Universities  have  organized  in  connection  with  their  work 
so-called  "  colleges,"  into  which  the  boys  from  the  secondary 
schools  go  to  complete  a  training  which  ought  to  have  been 
adequately  given  them.  But  with  us  the  defect  is  far 
from  having  been  repaired.  It  used  to  be  strikingly  ex- 
hibited in  Scotland.  There  the  first  year  at  the  University 
had  to  be  devoted  to  work  which  should  have  been  done 
in  the  secondary  school.  But  of  late  years  the  secondary 
schools  in  Scotland  have  been  much  developed  in  quahty 
and  increased  in  number.  The  State  supervises  most  of  them, 
and  has  instituted  a  Leaving  Certificate  which  is  intended 
to  be  given  only  to  boys  and  girls  who,  by  their  record  as 
well  as  by  the  result  of  examinations,  are  shown  to  be 
fit  to  proceed  to  the  Universities,  where  the  certificate  is 
a  passport  to  admission  to  University  training  properly 
so  called.  In  England  there  has  been  no  parallel  develop- 
ment. The  system  of  the  Leaving  Certificate  has  been 
introduced,  but  only  sporadically  and  not  under  direct  State 
supervision.  The  result  is  that  the  test  is  unequally  applied 
and  is  not  general. 

Now  this  is  hardly  due  merely  to  the  absence  of  effort. 
It  is  as  much  due  to  the  fact  that  there  are  far  too  few 
secondary  schools,  and  that  many  of  those  that  exist  are 
in  a  very  imsatisfactory  condition.  One  of  the  most  in- 
structive volumes  that  has  been  issued  by  the  Board  of 
Education  in  recent  years  is  the  Report  of  the  Consultative 
Committee  on  Examinations  in  Secondary  Schools,  pub- 
lished in  1 9 1 1 .  This  Report  contains  an  exhaustive  review 
of  the  situation.  It  insists  on  the  necessity  of  far-reaching 
reform,  if  the  secondary  school  system  is  to  be  made 
adequate  to  the  needs  of  England.  In  particular  it  recom- 
mends the  introduction  of  secondary  school  certificates, 
which  should  take  account  of  the  record  of  the  pupils' 
schoolwork,  and  should  be  a  guarantee  that  the  holders 
had  taken  due  advantage  of  the  training  for  a  stated  period. 
The  judgment  of  the  teacher  and  a  suitable  examination, 
under  the  supervision  of  an  independent  examining  authority, 
should  be  the  tests.  It  is  suggested  in  the  Report  that 
this  authority  should,  for  the  present  at  least,  be  a  repre- 
sentative council,  on  which  the  Board  of  Education,  the 
Universities,  the  Local  Education  Authorities,  the  teachers. 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  103 

and  persons  with  experience  of  practical  life  should  be 
represented.  The  Report  recommends  that  there  should 
be  two  such  certificates,  one  for  pupils  who  have  remained 
in  the  secondary  school  until  sixteen  ;  the  second,  a  time- 
leaving  certificate,  which  should  be  attainable  only  by  pupils 
who  have  remained  on  until  eighteen  or  nineteen.  The 
latter  certificate  would  form  the  passport,  not  only  to 
University  life,  but  to  other  forms  of  life,  and  should 
accomplish  the  end  which  the  State  has  already  sought 
to  accomplish  in  Scotland.  I  doubt  whether  the  Report 
goes  far  enough  in  its  recommendation  as  to  the  Examining 
Authority.  I  think  that  the  Board  of  Education  might 
now,  in  view  of  certain  strides  which  it  has  been  making, 
organize  the  examinations  for  the  certificates  directly,  using 
the  help  of  the  Universities  largely,  and  calling  to  its 
aid  advisory  committees,  on  which  other  and  necessary 
interests  would  be  represented. 

It  is  probable  that  if  effect  were  given  to  the  main 
recommendations  of  this  Report  the  result  would  be  to 
ease  the  problem  of  State  aid  for  the  secondary  schools 
in  England  at  once.  Now  this  problem  is  not  only,  as 
things  stand,  very,  very  pressing,  but  the  absence  of  a 
solution  is  exercising  an  evil  influence  in  other  spheres 
than  those  of  secondary  education  merely.  As  has  already 
been  pointed  out,  the  Universities  are  beiing  heavily 
hampered  in  their  work  by  having  to  divert  much  of  their 
energies  to  preliminary  studies  which  ought  to  have  been 
completed  in  the  secondary  school.  How  great  an  evil 
this  is  any  one  may  see  who  will  turn  to  the  Report  of 
the  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education  in  London, 
a  Report  which  deals  with  this  question  at  large.  It  is, 
further,  an  important  fact  that  those  who  are  responsible 
for  regulating  entry  into  the  professions  and  occupations 
which  require  a  good  standard  of  preliminary  mental  train- 
ing are,  imder  present  circumstances,  impeded  in  the  diffi- 
cult task  of  selection  by  the  absence  of  the  individual 
guarantee  which  a  reliable  certificate  of  secondary  education 
would  supply. 

Our  secondary  school  system  is  in  reality  the  weakest 
part  of  the  educational  organization  in  England.  To 
realize  how  short  it  falls  it  is  only  necessary  to  compare 
it  with  the  secondary  school  system  in  Germany,  which  is 
the  strongest  part  of  the  German  organization.  There  the 
system    is    probably    carried    to   excess.     What    makes    the 


I04  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

German  problem  comparatively  easy  is  that  the  German 
FreiwUliges  Examen  exempts  the  holder  from  compulsory 
military  service  for  more  than  one  year.  The  certificate 
therefore  is  strenuously  sought  after  and  crammed  for. 
To  avoid  the  crammer  the  German  authorities  have  laid 
stress  on  the  bringing  to  bear  of  the  opinion  of  the  teacher 
and  of  record  in  making  the  test.  But  the  secondary  school 
in  Germany  is,  notwithstanding  efforts  made  to  obviate 
the  result,  a  tremendous  place  of  discipline  and  of  mere 
book  knowledge.  The  Germans,  in  consequence,  turn  their 
eyes  longingly  to  features  in  our  great  English  Public 
Schools  which  they  have  hitherto  been  unable  to  repro- 
duce. The  ideal  for  us  and  for  them  would  be  a 
combination  of  the  best  features  of  both  types  of  school. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  eight  or  nine  years  spent 
in  the  German  secondary  school  and  the  intellectual 
discipline  which  is  there  instilled  have  exercised  a  great 
influence,  on  the  whole  beneficial,  on  German  Univeirsity 
life.  Lehr  and  Lernfreiheit  became  possible  simply 
because  the  whole  of  the  necessary  preliminary  training 
has  been  accomplished  in  the  gymnasium.  The  student, 
who  as  the  result  of  this  arrives  at  the  gate  of  the  Univer- 
sity some  two  years  older  than  with  us,  comes  with  a 
passport  in  the  shape  of  his  certificate,  without  which  he 
cannot  proceed,  and  in  the  light  of  which  the  University 
can  rest  satisfied  that  he  is  probably  fit  for  training  in 
the  higher  atmosphere  of  the  University.  In  that  atmo- 
sphere there  is  little  examination  and  almost  less  super- 
vision. The  student  is  left  free  to  choose  his  course  and 
make  the  most  of  his  time.  But  when  at  the  end  of  that 
time  he  presents  himsielf  for  his  degree,  he  must  satisfy 
the  University  authorities  that  he  has  used  his  opportuni- 
ties adequately.  He  must  submit  a  thesis  showing  some 
originality  of  eff'ort  in  thought,  and  he  must  orally  satisfy 
his  examiners  that  he  has  been  a  student  in  the  real  sense. 
This  at  least  is  the  obligation  aimed  at.  The  sanction  is 
not  only  that  if  the  student  faUs  to  obtain  his  University 
degree  he  will  run  the  risk  of  finding  some  at  least  of 
the  best  avenues  in  civil  life  closed  to  him.  His  Univer- 
sity training  is  essential  as  the  preparation  for  another  test. 
It  is  the  work  done  during  the  period  of  training  at  the 
University  that  enables  him  to  pass  that  Staats -Examen, 
the  portal  through  which  he  must  pass  if  he  desires  to 
enter  the  majority  of  these  avenues. 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  i6^ 

It  seems  evident  that  what  is  most  wanted  in  England  is 
a  concentration  of  effort  on  the  development  and  the  reform 
of  the  secondary  school  system.  We  have  made  immense 
strides  in  primary  education  since  the  years  antecedent  to 
the  Act  of  1870,  But  for  secondary  education,  although 
a  good  deal  has  been  done,  and  the  Education  Act  of 
1902  has  been  a  stimulus,  almost  everything  that, is  requisite 
remains  to  be  accomplished.  Until  a  real  advance  has 
been  made,  no  satisfactory  progress  is  possible  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  full  development  of  a  complete  national  system 
of  education.  Quantity  and  quality  are  alike  deficient.  And 
until  the  deficiency  is  repaired  not  only  elementary  educa- 
tion, of  its  full  value  only  in  so  far  as  it  fills  its  place  in 
an  entirety  reaching  beyond  itself,  but  post -secondary 
education  which  depends  on  what  is  secondary  for  its 
foundation,   will   remain  imperfect. 

It  is  this  imperfection  which  lies  at  the  root  of  much 
of  our  national  shortcoming  in  organizing  power.  Since 
the  war  began,  a  determined  effort  has  been  initiated  to 
make  up  something  of  this  shortcoming.  A  Special 
Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  has  been  constituted 
to  superintend  and  give  sanction  to  the  work  of  a  new 
Advisory  Council.  This  advisory  body  has  on  it  repre- 
sentatives both  of  Education  and  of  Science.  The  object 
is  to  develop  the  number  and  quality  of  those  who  will 
devote  their  energies  to  applying  science  to  industry.  For 
the  accomplishment  of  this  object  it  is  necessary,  not  only 
to  improve  organization  in  the  secondary  and  technical 
schools  and  the  Universities  and  University  Colleges,  but 
to  develop  the  scholarship  system  and  the  necessary 
pecuniary  facilities  for  picked  students  devoting  themselves 
to  post-graduate  research.  The  necessity  for  a  marked 
advance  if,  in  industries  dependent  on  science,  this  country 
is  to  recover  lost  ground,  or  even  hold  what  it  has  now, 
is  everywhere  apparent.  To  take  as  an  example  the 
chemical  industries  in  the  United  Kingdom,  there  are  only 
some  1,500  chemists,  including  analysts,  employed  in  the 
whole  of  these  industries.  In  Germany  the  four  chief 
firms  in  the  colour  industry  alone  employ  1,000  research 
chemists . 

The  new  Committees  are  doing  valuable  and  necessary 
work.  But  they  do  not  profess  to  be  able  to  get  at  the 
root  of  the  problem,  which  can  only  be  reached  by  dealing 
with  the  organization  of  education  as  a  whole.     Still,  it  is 


io6  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

a  great  matter  that  the  war  has  piut  ideas  into  our  people 
which  have  induced  them  to  take  even  this  step.  It  can- 
not be  too  firmly  insisted  on  that  all  proposals  for  increased 
teaching  of  science  in  our  schools,  and  for  giving  it  a 
more  important  place  in  public  examinations,  useful  as  they 
are  in  attracting  attention  to  a  grave  need,  merely  scratch 
the  surface  so  far  as  real  preparation  of  the  ground  is 
concerned.  We  know  quite  well  what  has  to  be  done, 
and  forty  years  ago  Matthew  Arnold  warned  the  nation 
of  the  consequences  of  not  doing  it.  To-day  there  is  a 
body  of  experts  who  have  carried  on  the  tradition  of  his 
teaching,  and  have  developed  his  recommendations.  The 
field  is  mapped  out.  The  keenness  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  of  the  cognate  bodies  elsewhere  leaves  nothing 
to  be  desired  excepting  the  putting  into  their  hands  of 
the  instruments  they  require.  But  the  difficulty  is,  what 
it  always  has  been,  the  lack  of  interest  and  of  ideas  among 
our  people.  Ministers  are,  after  all,  only  the  mandatories 
of  the  nation,  and  if  the  nation  will  not  give  them  a 
mandate  they  can  make  but  little  progress.  For  years  the 
voices  of  the  party  of  education  have  been  as  the  voices 
of  those  crying  in  the  wilderness.  But,  while  the  older 
Universities  continue  to  be  ruled  by  absentees  and  clergy- 
men, and  the  interest  in  the  other  Universities  remains 
local  and  not  national,  higher  education  cannot  flourish. 
And  it  is  the  indifference  which  lets  this  state  of  things 
continue  in  existence  that  accounts  also  for  the  slow  pro- 
gress in  dealing  with  our  secondary  education  and  in  getting 
rid  of  the  hindrances  caused  by  religious  controversy  to  the 
improvement  of  our  elementary  schools.  The  want  of  keen- 
ness is  again  due  to  the  want  of  ideas.  Scotland  and 
Wales  have  been  better  in  this  respect  than  England,  and 
as  the  result  they  have  got  more  done  for  them  and  have 
been  enabled  to  do  more  for  themselves.  But  then  among 
these  peoples  there  has  been  diffused  something  of  that 
passion  for  excellence  in  knowledge  which  penetrates  only 
among  the  few  in  England,  Without  the  touch  of  that 
passion  it  would  have  been  hard  for  them  to  get  the 
Scottish  Education  Act  of  1908  and  the  Welsh  Intermediate 
Education  Act  of  1889  out  of  apathetic  Cabinets  and 
indifferent  Parliaments. 

In  the  arts  of  war  and  the  arts  of  peace  the  same  thing 
is  true.  We  suffer  from  want  of  organized  intelligence. 
The  warning  as  to  the  consequences  has  been  given  again 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION  107, 

and  again  during  the  last  half -century.  And  those  who 
know  are  repeating  it  now.  But  if  Cabinets  are  indifferent, 
and  Parliament  is  indifferent,  and  the  Press  is  indifferent, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  warning  turns  out  each 
time  to  have  fallen  on  deaf  ears.  And  yet  in  the  end  the 
Cabinets  and  the  Parliaments  and  the  newspapers  turn  out 
to  be  what  the  public  has  made  them,  and  thus  it  results 
that  it  is  to  the  people  themselves  that  the  evangelist  must 
go  with  his  summons.  He  must  tell  them  that  however 
easily  we  may  appear  to  have  escaped  the  consequences 
of  our  own  low  standard  in  generations  gone  by,  the  present 
generation  is  not  one  in  which  a  similar  escape  is  prac- 
ticable. For  other  nations  have  advanced  in  this  very 
business  of  organizing  knowledge  while  we  have  stood  still, 
and  in  material  respects  they  are  now  ahead  of  us.  And 
whether  it  is  Germany  that  is  concerned,  or  France,  or 
the  United  States,  or  for  that  matter  our  own  Dominions, 
there  is  only  one  way  in  which  we  can  secure  our  position 
in  the  future,  and  that  is  by  not  being  behind  these  coim- 
tries  in  the  organization  of  knowledge,  and  above  all  in 
the  preparation  of  that  future  generation  that  will  have 
to  carry  the  national  banner.  No  Protection,  no  wall  of 
tariff,  will  help  us  if  we  suffer  from  this  deficiency.  Nay, 
if  taken  by  themselves  and  in  isolation,  they  will  rather 
hinder  us,  for  they  will  divert  our  steps  into  byways  from 
the  straight  and  narrow  path  of  mental  discipline  along 
which  with  hard  toil  of  the  spirit  our  coming  race  must 
struggle  if  it  is  to  attain  supremacy  and  keep  it.  And 
it  is  not  only  scientific  knowledge  that  is  required.  It  is 
the  wider  outlook,  the  deeper  insight,  that  comes  of  what 
is  spiritual,  even  more  than  from  what  is  purely  intel- 
lectual. Never  was  there  a  time  when  the  preachers  were 
more  needed  by  the  teachers.  Can  the  Churches  but  rise 
to  it  they  have  one  of  the  greatest  opportunities  of  leading 
that  has  ever  come  to  them.  For  there  is  a  disposition 
everywhere,  a  disposition  which  the  tremendous  event  of 
this  war  has  heightened,  to  regard  the  dogmas  and  the 
doctrines  round  which  theological  quarrels  have  centred 
as  themselves  symbolic  of  deeper  realities  about  which  there 
can  be  no  genuine  doubt.  Faith  begins  to  have  a  new 
significance,  and  the  spirit  of  those  who  call  to  faith  is 
in  consequence  being  penetrated  with  new  and  dominating 
impulses . 

Let  us  now  try  to  realize  the  extent  of  the  ground  that 


io§  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

has  to  be  covered  if  pTovision  is  to  be  made  to  enable 
the  future  generation  to  compete  on  even  terms  with  its 
rivals  across  the  seas. 

In  the  first  place  the  number  and  the  health  of  the 
future  generation  must  be  improved  by  the  resolute  carry- 
ing out  of  the  measures  necessary  to  prevent  pre-natal 
wastage  and  infection.  To  enter  on  this  subject  at  length 
would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  pai>er.  It  is  enough 
to  refer  to  the  Reports  recently  issued  by  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board.  Probably  15  per  cent,  of  those  who  might 
under  better  conditions  have  been  bom  into  the  world  as 
healthy  children  die  before  birth  from  preventible  causes, 
while  a  large  number  of  the  residue  are  born  diseased  or 
defective.  The  recent  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission 
on  Venereal  Diseases,  and  its  Appendices,  throw  a  search- 
ing light  on  one  terrible  source  of  this  evil,  and  show 
that  much  may  be  done  to  diminish  it.  But  phthisis  and 
other  transmissible  diseases  are  not  less  formidable.  For- 
tunately, we  now  know  how  to  diminish  these  sources  of 
wastage.  Again,  at  least  10  per  cent,  of  the  children 
who  are  actually  born  die  within  the  first  twelve  months 
from  causes  which  could  in  large  measure  be  obviated. 
If  these  two  wastages  were  got  rid  of,  we  could  contem- 
plate the  steady  diminution  of  the  birth-rate  with  easier 
minds — easier  because  there  would  be  a  great  gain  not 
only  in  quantity  but  in  quality  of  life,  and  some  of  the 
most  difficult  problems  of  public  health  would  in  conse- 
quence be  much  reduced  in  dimensions. 

But  the  matter  does  not  end  there.  The  reforms  I  have 
mentioned  belong  in  the  main  to  the  department  of  local 
government.  To  the  department  of  education  belongs  a 
further  reform,  that  of  the  physical  care  and  development 
of  the  child  through  its  educational  period.  This  is  a 
question  with  which  real  progress  had  been  made  before 
the  war  by  the  Board  of  Education.  Indeed,  the  recently 
published  Reports  of  Dr.  Newsholme,  of  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board,  and  of  Sir  George  Newman,  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  are  among  the  most  striking  evidences  of  actual 
progress  made — progress,  it  may  be  added,  which  probably 
places  us  ahead  in  this  respect  of  any  other  nation.  The 
proper  organization  was  being  rapidly  developed  before  the 
war  with  the  aid  of  voluntary  assistance  under  scientific 
direction  from  the  State,  and  there  was  promise  of  very 
valuable   results    for   the    population    generally.      We   must 


NATIONAL     EDUCATION  109 

see  to  it  that  we  do  not  let  our  minds  be  diverted  from 
this  most  vital  branch  of  reform,  for  it  lies  at  the  root  of 
progress  in  education,  as  well  as  in  other  things. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  much  to  be  desired  that  there 
should  be  an  improvement  in  the  condition  of  our 
elementary  schools.  Not  only  are  better  buildings  re- 
quired, but  if  we  are  to  get  the  teachers  we  need  the 
remuneration  we  offer  must  be  improved.  This  reform  is 
less  pressing  than  others  only  because  a  good  deal  has 
been  done  in  this  direction  during  the  last  twelve  years. 
But  much  remains  to  be  done,  not  only  as  regards  buildings 
and  teachers,  but  in  the  direction  of  physical  and  other 
training.  It  is,  for  example,  plain  that  physical  training 
may  be  greatly  aided  by  the  introduction  of  methods  of 
self-discipline,  such  as  Sir  Robert  Baden  Powell's  Boy 
Scouts'  organization  has  applied  with  conspicuous  success. 
It  is  also  plain  that  in  the  last  years  at  the  elementary 
school  we  have  failed  to  take  the  opportunity  of  training 
boys  for  practical  life  in  the  way  in  which  it  has  been  done 
on  the  Continent.  The  last  year,  in  particular,  should  be 
one  where  the  boy  is  made  ready  and  encouraged  to  think 
of  his  future  calling,  and  to  look  forward  to  the  continuation 
school . 

In  the  third  place,  if  the  order  is  made  to  follow  the 
stages  in  life  reached,  comes  that  vital  necessity  for  intro- 
ducing a  far-reaching  system  of  vocational  training  to 
which  I  have  already  devoted  a  good  many  of  these 
pages. 

In  the  fourth  place  there  is  the  great  effort  that  must 
be  made  to  put  our  secondary  school  system  on  a  prop)er 
footing,  and  of  this  I  have  already  said  sufficient  to 
indicate  the  nature  and  necessity  of  this  effort.  I  will  only 
add  that  in  France  three  times  as  many  of  the  population 
as  with  us  study  in  the  upper  classes  of  the  secondary; 
schools,  and  in  Prussia  more  than  five  times  as  many. 
These  figures  tell  their  own  tale. 

In  the  fifth  place  comes  the  development  of  our  Univer- 
sity system,  and  the  introduction  of  much  needed  reform, 
which  will,  among  other  things,  give  to  the  teaching  of 
science  not  only  in  the  Universities  but  in  the  secondary 
and  technical  schools  a  larger  place.  I  say  no  more  than 
I  have  already  said  on  this  subject  in  the  preceding  pages, 
because  my  views  were  fully  expressed  in  the  Report  of 
the  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education  in  London, 


no  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

views  which  I  hold  certainly  not  less  strongly  than  I  did 
when  I  signed  that  Report. 

As  regards  both  the  continuation  and  the  secondary 
schools,  public  opinion  is  probably  now  ripe  for  a  feature 
corresponding  to  the  "  Boy  Scout  "  training  in  the 
elementary  school,  but  of  a  more  advanced  character. 
Compulsory  cadet  training  would,  I  think,  be  an  unmiti- 
gated advantage  for  the  great  majority  of  boys  up  to 
about  eighteen,  the  age  at  which  those  who  care  to  do 
something  for  national  defence  have  the  Territorial  or 
Citizen  Army  open  to  them  in  normal  periods.  Such 
compulsory  training  would  probably  be  popular  with  the 
boys,  and  consequently  would  not  interfere  with  the  dis- 
position to  join  the  regular  Army  later,  a  danger  to  which 
compulsion  for  adults  is  held  by  many  to  lay  itself  open. 
Moreover,  it  would  render  the  raising  and  training  of  a 
large  Army  in  an  emergency  such  as  we  are  witnessing 
much  easier  and  more  rapid. 

The  contribution  of  the  Universities  and  the  University 
and  Technical  Colleges  to  National  Defence  would  naturally, 
as  at  present,  assume  the  form  of  Officers*  Training  Corpus, 
and  from  these  the  older  boys  in  the  Public  Schools  should 
not  be  excluded.  The  war  has  shown  the  value  to  the 
nation  of  the  Officers'  Training  Corps  movement,  and  its 
possibilities  as  a  side  of  post -secondary  education  are  by 
no  means  exhausted.  It  should  certainly  be  a  prominent 
feature  in  our  University  life. 

The  war  has  indeed  made  the  demand  for  urgency  about 
reforms  such  as  I  have  suggrested  more  pressing.  They 
seem  to  me  vital  for  our  national  life  unless  we  are  con- 
tent to  subside,  slowly  it  may  be  but  surely,  into  a  lower 
place  in  the  hierarchy  of  the  great  nations.  None  of  the 
reforms  so  loudly  called  for  to-day  in  newspapers  and  on 
platforms  can  take  their  place  or  in  any  material  degree 
affect  their  necessity.  They  will  cost  money  and  involve 
sacrifices.  We  must  accomplish  them  with  the  utmost 
economy  in  days  in  which  we  are  becoming  a  country 
overburdened  with  debt.  But  accomnlish  them'  we  must. 
For  if  we  do  not  we  shall  lose  the  tide. 


CHAPTER    VI 

Organization  of  the  National  Resources 

Bv  SIR  JOSEPH   COMPTON-RICKETT,   M.P. 

In  discussing  the  resources  of  the  nation  we  must  be  careful 
not  to  limit  those  resources  to  immediate  money  gain  and 
to  material  advantage.  For  the  moment  it  is  evident  that 
the  mind  of  the  nation  is  concentrating  upon  a  higher 
ability  of  production  in  order  to  make  good  its  losses, 
to  carry  taxation  easily,  and  to  come  to  close  grip  with 
the  dead  weight  of  its  debt.  Important  as  these  con- 
siderations may  be,  we  must  not  fail  to  take  stock  of  our 
intellectual  resourcefulness,  lest  in  a  passion  for  production 
we  lose  hold  of  that  capacity  which  enables  us  to  rise  to 
higher  planes  of  living,  and  incidentally  to  lift  our  treatment 
of  business  to  the  same  measure  of  abUity.  It  is  possible 
to  develop  a  selfishness  so  intense  that  it  does  not  take 
account  of  the  diverse  conditions  of  the  Empire,  and  regards 
the  prosperity  of  foreign  States  as  contradictory  instead 
of  complementary  to  its  own.  We  must  freely  admit  that 
the  British  are  jealous  of  their  individual  independence, 
and  do  not  easily  submit  to  rules  and  to  regulations.  It 
is  the  old  story,  the  alternative,  presented  again  and  again 
in  history,  should  liberty  be  claimed  upon  its  abstract  merit, 
or  because  of  the  benefit  which  accrues  to  the  nation  which 
declares  for  it  ?  We  cannot  always  have  it  both  ways, 
and  it  looks  as  if  the  moment  had  arrived  when  the  British 
democracy  must  make  up  its  mind  and  pronounce.  Shall 
we  take  life  as  easily  as  in  the  past,  smoke  our  pip>e  and 
swing  our  legs  upon  the  handiest  fence,  a  little  out  at 
elbows,  but  happy  ;  or,  realizing  that  liberty  has  often 
degenerated  into  licence,  call  the  nation  to  accoimt  and 
entrust  some  of  its  aff^airs  to  those  competent  to  co-ordinate 
them  ? 


112  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

Something  may  be  said  for  our  native  independence. 
It  is  not  wholly  due  to  our  insular  position,  to  simple 
ignorance  of  others,  but  to  the  fact  that  these  Islands  have 
been  the  refuge  of  men  and  of  ideas  which  did  not  com- 
mend themselves  to  continental  rulers.  These  homeless 
exiles,  whether  human  or  ideal,  for  many  centuries  have 
settled  here,  for  we  were  the  ancient  outpost  of  civiliza- 
tion. Fugitives,  discontented  with  their  old  belongings, 
claimed  sanctuary  for  every  kind  of  opinion,  .industrial, 
scientific,  constitutional  or  anarchic.  It  is  not  strange 
that  the  British  race  has  been  largely  affected  by  this 
constant  immigration.  But  now  America  has  taken  the 
place  of  the  British  Islands  and  receives  the  outpouring, 
not  to  say  the  outscouring,  of  Europe. 

Yet  we  admit  that  bread  niust  come  first.  A  nation 
to  be  really  great  is  better  for  some  wealth.  After  the 
demands  of  bare  living  have  been  met,  it  must  reserve 
energy  for  the  higher  things,  or  it  will  lose  its  life  in  the 
ver)-^  act  of  saving  it.  There  must  be  a  margin  of  profit, 
a  surplus  which  can  be  put  out  to  interest  in  leisure  for 
Science  and  for  Art,  and  for  a  better  understanding  of  the 
Universe.  It  was  out  of  this  surplus  profit  that  China 
of  old  built  up  her  civilization,  and  we  owe  more  to  the 
wealthy  areas  of  the  Euphrates  and  of  the  Nile  than 
mankind  has  fully  realized. 

We  must  look  to  the  peculiar  position  of  our  own 
country,  for  it  has  insular  advantages  as  well  as  disabili- 
ties. Our  way  is  in  the  sea  and  our  path  is  in  the  great 
waters .  In  spite  of  the  tediousness  of  the  long  voyages,  and 
the  perils  of  the  deep,  there  is  comparative  safety  in  sea 
transit.  With  the  building  of  great  vessels  the  economy 
of  water  carriage  has  been  increased,  and  the  use  of  steam 
has  added  to  its  rapidity.  We  have  only  to  imagine  an 
earth  where  the  oceans  were  landlocked  seas,  lacking 
spaciousness  and  depth,  and  where  communications  were 
mostly  overland.  The  British  Empire  might  indeed  have 
grown  into  a  second  Russia,  but  on  a  much  smaller  scale. 
In  dealing  with  our  own  resources  we  are  bound  to  keep 
in  mind  the  necessities  of  the  Empire.  It  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  maintain  communication  with  every  portion,  and 
there  is  no  better  means  for  so  doing  than  the  maintenance! 
of  trade.  For  if  the  Empire  was  not  engaged  in  inter- 
trading  it  would  weaken  its  interdependence  ;  commercial 
alliances   would   be   formed   with   other   States,   and   out   of 


ORGANIZATION    OF    NATIONAL    RESOURCES      113 

these  would  presently  grow  some  political  relationship. 
Nothing,  therefore,  must  diminish  our  control  of  the  sea- 
ways, nor  oust  us  from  the  position  of  the  premier  carriers 
of  the  world.  It  is  most  desirable  that  the  nation  should 
continue  to  be  an  international  clearing-house,  and  by  its 
financial  operations  adjust  the  balance  of  trade.  We  can 
only  retain  this  position  by  continuing  our  large  opera- 
tions in  countries  sympathetic  to  our  assistance,  developing 
their  industries  by  means  of  the  loans  which  we  issue  to 
them,  and  receiving  from  them  the  interest  due  to  us  in  the 
form  of  products,  raw  material  or  otherwise,  such  as  we 
cannot  produce  ourselves  or  which  it  is  not  worth  our 
while  to  create. 

All  these  relationships  have  a  bearing  on  our  mercantile 
marine,  and  this  practical  monopoly  of  seafaring  industry 
which  we  now  possess  is  a  principal  condition  of  empire. 
We  have  been  accustomed  to  carry,  not  only  from  the 
Mother  Country  to  the  Dominions,  but  to  every  foreign 
country  with  which  we  have  dealings,  from  one  Dominion 
to  another,  and  even  from  one  foreign  country  to  another, 
until  we  have  become  the  common  carriers  of  the  world. 
Our  loans  reach  the  borrower  in  the  form  of  goods  manu- 
factured in  our  own  country,  and  we  retain  the  profits  of 
sea -carriage  as  an  element  in  the  price  of  our  exports, 
whilst  we  diminish  the  cost  of  our  imports  by  returning 
to  this  country  with  full  freights  instead  of  in  ballast. 
So  long,  therefore,  as  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  import  raw 
material  for  our  manufactures,  and  to  add  considerably 
to  our  supplies  of  food,  we  have  occupation  for  our  vessels 
both  ways  and  can  carry  cheaper  than  any  nation  which 
restricts  itself  by  a  severe  limitation  of  its  imports.  Inci- 
dentally, the  mercantile  marine  is  the  nursery  of  our  Navy. 
Taken  altogether,  we  may  put  our  merchant  service  as  one 
of  our  resources  which  are  essential  to  our  imperial  posi- 
tion. So  long  as  we  keep  this  fact  in  mind  we  need  not 
favour  any  particular  fiscal  system,  for  fiscal  systems  are 
not  intended  to  establish  international  welfare,  but  to  favour 
a  particular  people — one  political  organism. 

In  coming  closer  to  the  subject  we  must  assume  a  con- 
dition of  peace.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  argue  the 
question  upon  the  assumption  that  we  shall  continue  to 
regard  any  portion  of  the  world  as  politically  outcast.  If 
this  conflict  were  to  be  brought  to  a  close  without  our 
obtaining  a  decisive  result,  then  the  combatants  would  have 

8 


.114  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY. 

to  remain  on  guard  like  fencers  who  were  getting  their 
breath  before  they  renewed  the  struggle.  Under  such  a 
state  of  things  it  would  be  wholly  impossible  for  any  nation 
to  devote  itself  to  its  best  interests.  Trade,  like  all  else, 
would  lie  under  the  sliadow  of  an  impending  disaster,  and 
there  could  be  no  pretence  of  organizing  this  country  or 
the  Empire.  But  those  who  have  so  argued  are  really 
half-hearted  about  the  result  of  the  war.  They  assume 
that  we  shall  have  to  meet  a  Germany  as  capable  as  the 
one  with  whom  we  ceased  to  deal  when  she  invaded 
Belgium.  This  theory  assumes  that  the  commercial  world 
will  be  grouped  into  two  opposing  alliances  which  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  one  another,  but  each  of  them 
desperately  contending  in  the  neutral  markets  of  the  world. 
It  would  be  better  to  continue  the  war  than  to  accept 
such  a  peace,  for  violent  commercial  antipathies  of  this 
kind  would  be  almost  certain  to  lead  to  further  outbreaks 
in  an  immediate  future.  It  is  not  worth  while  even  to 
discuss  a  /commercial  policy  which  could  at  the  most  only 
last  a  short  time  and  which  would  be  accompanied  by 
very  unfavourable  conditions  and  be  carried  on  in  the 
lurid  atmosphere  of  distrust.  It  may,  indeed,  be  wise  to 
have  an  alternative  system  to  which  we  could  resort  in  the 
unfortunate  chance  of  a  future  disturbance.  For  we  can- 
not frame  life  under  conditions  of  ill-health,  but  for  a 
normal  and  sane  state  of  things.  For  example,  we  have 
been  willing  to  sacrifice  our  personal  hberties  for  a  time, 
but  we  should  certainly  not  convert  the  Defence  of  the 
Realm  Act  into  a  substitute  for  Magna  Charta. 

Turning  again  to  conditions  of  peace,  we  must  look  to 
our  resources  in  the  land  and  in  the  population.  Is  it  in 
the  best  interests  of  the  Empire  that  we  should  seek  to 
maintain  in  these  Islands  an  ever-increasing  number  ;  or 
do  our  settlements  on  other  continents  assure  to  us  freer 
geographical  conditions  and  a  better  future  for  our  race  ? 

First,  in  regard  to  the  soil.  Cultivation  falls  far  below 
the  amount  of  wheat  and  meat  which  these  Islands  require. 
It  has  been  said  that  this  country  comes  only  just  within 
the  wheat  zone  of  Northern  latitudes,  and  that  our  climatic 
conditions  are  not  so  good  as  the  great  wheat -bearing 
districts  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  World.  With  regard 
to  meat  this  is  otherwise  ;  but  land  is  more  valuable  in 
this  country,  and  the  feeding -ground  of  the  American  Con- 
tinents can  produce  more  cheaply.     Yet  it  is  difficult  and 


ORGANIZATION    OF    NATIONAL    RESOURCES      115 

costly  to  transport  live  beasts,  and  dead  meat  imported 
in  a  chilled  condition  has  to  accept  the  contingencies  of 
transit.  On  the  other  hand,  wheat  can  be  transported 
expeditiously,  handled  easily.  It  is  an  advantage  to  the 
bread  consumer  that  the  millers'  grist  should  be  made 
up  from  wheats  drawn  from  various  parts  of  the  world. 
In  our  climate  pasture  is  not  subject  to  the  same  risks 
as  attend  the  growth  of  the  wheat  plant,  and  on  the  whole 
the  extension  of  wheat  cultivation  wiU  probably  not  be 
carried  to  such  an  extent  as  to  considerably  affect  our 
importation.  Mixed  farming  will  go  on  as  heretofore,  but 
with  better  result.  If,  however,  we  are  to  do  the  best  for 
our  land,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  leave  its  cultivation  to 
the  haphazard  of  the  individual  cultivator.  The  old- 
fashioned  farmer,  with  his  leisurely  ways  and  his  weekly, 
market,  is  clearly  doomed.  He  must  give  way  to  scheme 
and  to  purpose,  a  scheme  which  will  take  into  consideration 
the  supplies  of  the  world.  As  I  have  attempted  to  show, 
elsewhere,  the  local  farmer  is  very  little  interested  in  the 
produce  of  distant  countries,  though  it  is  virtually  com- 
peting with  his  own.  But  a  Farming  Co-operation,  whose 
agents  were  everywhere,  could  regtilate  the  character  of 
production  by  anticipating  the  demands  and  supplies  of 
six  or  twelve  months  ahead,  and  would  direct  the  energies 
of  a  farmer  to  that  particular  product  best  suited  to  his 
soil,  and  the  most  likely  to  secure  a  good  market.  The 
farmer  would  then  become  simply  a  producer  ;  his  pro- 
ducts would  be  sold  for  him  and  his  seed  and  appliances 
co-operatively  provided.  For  the  balance  of  food  required 
we  must  draw  upon  the  markets  of  the  world.  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  our  own  Dominions  would  care  prefer- 
entially to  favour  us  except  in  time  of  national  emergency. 
Many  of  them  might  have  a  market  close  at  hand  at  a 
better  price  because  of  the  comparative  advantage  of 
carriage.  If  the  United  States  of  America  continues  to 
multiply  her  population,  she  may  become  an  importer  of 
wheat,  willing  to  give  Canada  a  better  price  than  the 
British  market  could  offer.  If  Canada  is  to  give  us  a 
preference,  we  could  hardly  ask  them  to  sell  to  us  more 
cheaply  than  to  the  United  States.  Of  course  in  a  state 
of  war  we  should  have  to  give  the  open  market  value  if 
Canadian  production  generally  was  secured  to  the  Mother 
Country.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  we  can  make  good 
the  difference  out  of  Russian  wheat,  a  wheat  well  adapted 


116  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

to  British  milling,  or  from  Indian  and  Australian  supplies. 
There  will  always  be  a  certain  amount  of  Canadian  wheat 
for  which  this  country  would  be  prepared  to  pay  a  high 
price  in  order  to  improve  the  millers'  grist.  At  the  present 
time  we  have  the  world  upon  which  to  draw.  If  the 
harvests  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  are  disappointing, 
the  Southern  Hemisphere  will  come  in  to  redress  the 
balance,  to  make  good  the  deficiency.  To  be  left  at  the 
mercy  of  the  climate  of  this  country  for  the  food  we  eat 
would  never  be  tolerated. 

But  it  may  be  said.  What  are  you  going  to  do  if  foreign 
supplies  continue  plentiful,  freights  are  low,  and  the  British 
farmer  is  reduced  to  such  straits  that  he  cannot  carry  on? 
Is  it  not  necessary  that  a  minimum  quantity  of  food  suffi- 
cient to  help  in  an  emergency  should  be  grown  in  these 
Islands  ?  We  admit  that  this  contingency  must  be  taken 
into  account.  It  is  evident  that  land  is  the  one  indis- 
pensable thing.  A  form  of  property  unlike  all  others,  it 
can  neither  be  increased  nor  diminished,  and  yet  the  national 
life  would  be  seriously  affected  if  the  land  were  diverted 
to  selfish  or  temporary  objects.  To  place  such  land,  either 
immediately  or  gradually,  under  the  control  of  the  com- 
munity is  only  the  exercise  of  a  common  right  inherent  in 
the  very  thing  itself.  Village  communities  with  common 
land  were  a  feature  of  ancient  England  as  of  other  coun- 
tries, and  the  Crown,  as  representing  the  commimity,  has 
an  implied  right  in  its  freehold  to-day.  The  feudal  culti- 
vation of  land  demanded  homage  to  the  sovereign  and  a 
response  to  a  call  to  arms  on  the  part  of  the  feudal  chief. 
If  the  community  recovers  the  freehold,  it  must  of  course 
be  on  terms  which  recognizes  that  sale  and  purchase  of 
land  has  been  free  for  many  years,  but  behind  such  liberty 
of  market  the  rights  of  the  community  have  existed. 
Assuming  the  nation  becomes  the  freeholder  and  that  all 
rights  of  cultivation,  great  and  small,  are  derived  from 
it,  a  diminution  or,  in  extreme  cases,  a  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  rent  will  act  like  a  bounty  and  wiU  carry  the 
cultivator  over  a  few  months  of  distress.  But  it  will  be 
said,  the  soil  is  not  intended  to  be  simply  a  manufactory 
for  food  ;  it  is  to  give  the  population  home,  health,  and 
opportunity.  Instead  of  the  large  farm,  with  its  scientific 
treatment  and  its  unbroken  area,  establish  small  holdings, 
revive  yeoman  farming,  employ  a  much  larger  number  of 
people.     Why    should    you    concentrate    such    masses    in 


ORGANIZATION    OF    NATIONAL    RESOURCES      117 

towns,  with  the  evils  of  factory  life  impairing  the  health 
of  the  future  race,  when  you  could  bring  more  land  into 
cultivation,  divide  to  a  much  greater  extent,  and  provide 
homes  to  which  Nature  would  contribute  a  restfulness  and 
peace  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  enjoy  a  sunset  than  to  attend 
a  cinema  ?  And  why  should  sunsets  fade  unseen  while  the 
streets  are  crowded  and  the  skies  darken?  Attach  the 
people  to  the  country,  breed  a  stronger  race — the  soil  is 
more  patriotic  than  the  street.  Give  stability  of  tenure, 
a  sense  of  ownership,  and  the  national  life  will  be 
strengthened,  for  the  wealth  of  the  country  will  be  expressed 
in  healthy  men  and  women. 

However  true  that  may  be,  it  is  doubtful  whether  an 
increasing  number  intend  to  settle  upon  the  land.  The 
spread  of  education,  the  development  of  the  intellect,  and 
the  multiplication  of  interests  consequent  upon  both,  tend  to 
draw  people  together  instead  of  dispersing  them.  Nature 
is  interesting,  but  slightly  monotonous  ;  she  requires  inter- 
pretation, for  she  speaks  in  a  tongue  of  her  own.  We 
shall  have  to  reckon  upon  the  competition  of  good  employ- 
ment in  the  towns.  If  wages  are  maintained  at  a  high 
level,  it  will  require  much  agricultural  advantage  to  com- 
pete with  town  employment,  and  it  is  very  possible  that 
a  scarcity  of  agricultural  labour  may  recur.  Scientific 
farming  on  a  large  scale,  with  electric -driven  appliances 
and  fewer  hands,  will  probably  become  the  method  of 
the  future.  It  is  not  very  likely  that  the  war  will  make 
a  diflference  in  this  respect.  It  may  even  increase  the 
desire  for  society  and  for  neighbourliness.  The  scattered 
cottages,  even  the  hamlet,  will  be  thronged  with  the  ghosts 
of  the  battlefield. 

Before  we  plunge  into  peasant  proprietorship  let  us  see 
how  far  our  proposals  are  likely  to  be  appreciated.  But 
has  not  emigration  to  the  great  North -West  and  to  other 
outlying  parts  of  Empire  shown  that  loneliness  with  agri- 
cultural pursuits  are  not  unsuccessfully  associated?  Some- 
times ;  but  the  results  are  not  always  as  satisfactory  as 
they  seem.  It  is  the  farmer  of  the  Old  World  who  makes 
the  success.  He  finds  a  better  market,  a  more  responsive 
soil,  a  sense  of  independence,  and  a  Iweek-end  at  the  nearest 
city,  which,  combined  together,  make  life  tolerable. 

We  have  referred  already  to  the  large  and  elastic  capital 
which  has  helped  the  Dominions  and  opened  fresh  avenues 
of    trade    in    foreign    countries.     These    loans    have    been 


ii8  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

made,  not  in  gold,  but  in  manufactured  goods,  in  railway 
and  electric  plant,  agricultural  machinery,  and  much  else, 
according  to  the  form  most  desired  by  the  borrowers.  This 
export  of  material  employs  our  factories  and  our  mercantile 
marine.  The  interest  upon  the  loan  is  paid  to  us  in  wheat, 
meat,  hides,  or  some  other  commodity  native  to  the  borrow- 
ing country.  We  are  not  yet  aware  of  how  far  our  capacity 
to  lend  will  be  affected  by  the  absorption  of  capital  occa- 
sioned by  the  war.  Upon  the  return  of  pveace  there  will 
be  an  enormous  demand,  both  at  home  and  abroad  ;  the 
ravages  of  war  will  have  to  be  repaired  and  a  large  number 
of  commercial  undertakings,  extension  of  works,  and  similar 
developments  which  have  been  arrested  for  the  time,  will 
come  pressing  together  into  the  market.  The  enemy  will 
be  too  exhausted,  commercially  crippled  as  we  believe,  to 
come  into  active  competition  with  its  former  competitors, 
for  competition  suggests  sacrifice.  We  already  see  that 
the  credit  of  this  country  stands  high,  and  that  our  enemies 
are  faced  with  the  rapidly  declining  confidence  of  neutrals. 
With  that  credit  we  may  hope  to  do  our  part  fully  in  the 
openings  for  trade,  which  promise  to  widen  considerably. 
We  shall  borrow  better  than  any  nation  in  the  Old  World, 
and  provided  that  we  work  together,  employers  and 
employed,  capital  and  labour,  we  shall  manufacture  more 
cheaply.  There  is  a  long  vista  before  ,us  of  favourable 
trade  conditions  before  a  time  of  reaction  sets  in,  if  that 
ever  occurs.  But  to  do  this  it  is  essential  that  we  lighten 
the  burden  of  taxation,  not  so  much  by  diminishing  the 
amount  that  we  have  to  pay  for  interest  and  in  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  principal  of  the  debt,  but  in  broadening  the 
back  that  carries  it.  There  is  only  one  direction  in  which 
we  can  successfully  increase  our  national  income,  and  that 
is  by  acquiring  a  control  of  enterprises  which  can  be 
worked  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.  To  begin  with, 
we  should  naturally  turn  to  monopolies.  We  have  applied 
this  principle  in  municipalizing  electric,  gas,  water,  and 
light  railway  undertakings.  It  does  not  follow  that  every 
experiment  must  necessarily  be  successful.  In  some  cases 
the  area  has  been  too  small  to  gather  the  required  amount 
of  business.  But  we  cannot  gainsay  the  principle.  Where 
there  is  no  competition  there  is  little  or  no  incentive  to 
the  economy  practised  by  private  ownership  and  no  call 
for  invention.  A  communal  authority  may  just  as  well 
gather  in  the  profits  for  the  relief  of  rates. 


ORGANIZATION    OF    NATIONAL    RESOURCES      119 

If  we  apply  this  to  large  monopolies,  there  is  equally  good 
reason  for  communal  action — ^and  sometimes  better.  Why 
should  not  the  communications  of  the  country  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  nation  as  we  monopolize  the  carrying  of  letters 
and  parcels  ?  For  these  and  other  great  imdertakings  fresh 
departments  would  have  to  be  created,  largely  autonomous, 
though  responsible  to  the  Government  as  formerly  to  their 
shareholders.  The  control  should  be  practically  free  from 
meddling  interference,  as,  indeed,  the  Army  and  the  Navy 
are  supposed  to  be.  The  elimination  of  wasteful  com- 
petition, the  better  service,  the  steady  development  of  the 
national  resources — all  these  would  help  to  swell  the 
national  income.  The  skilled  management  already  at  the 
disposal  of  great  concerns  would  be  available  to  a  larger 
extent  for  the  nation,  to  whom  the  high  payment  of  ability 
would  be  a  trifling  addition  to  the  cost  of  working.  Exist- 
ing liabilities  to  individuals  could  be  discharged  by  State 
bonds  of  different  character  at  fixed  rates  of  interest, 
according  to  the  findings  of  a  commission  appointed  for 
the  purpose  of  determining  them.  The  public  would  not 
be  more  remote,  probably  not  so  remote,  las  the  shareholder 
is  from  the  management  of  his  own  company  at  the  present 
time.  An  increased  amount  of  labour  would  be  nationally 
employed  upon  terms  which  must  be  more  satisfactory  to 
the  employed  than  any  which  private  capital  could  offer, 
for  it  would  be  reliable.  It  could  have  a  pension  scheme 
as  part  of  the  reward  of  labour,  and  the  workman  would 
feel  that  the  profit  which  he  contributed  to  make  was 
going  direct  to  the  State  instead  of  into  private  hands. 
Trade  disputes  would  be  less  frequent,  and  could  prob- 
ably be  avoided  by  the  recognition  of  a  sliding-scale 
method  of  remuneration.  At  any  rate,  the  State  has  con- 
stantly to  intervene  in  trade  disputes  at  the  present  time, 
whereas  employment  on  national  service  would  secure  more 
consideration  for  a  worker  and  a  healthy  public  opinion 
which  would  be  just  as  well  as  generous. 

Such  collectivism  could  be  cautiously  extended,  and  it 
would  meet  to  a  considerable  extent  the  rather  vague 
suggestions  of  Socialism  which,  on  a  national  scale,  are, 
for  the  time  at  any  rate,  impossible  in  this  country.  We 
depend  so  largely  upon  foreign  trade,  that  the  international 
position  is  as  important  to  us  as  the  national.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  see  that  we  should  require  other  civilized  States 
to    start    with    us    upon    full-blooded    Socialism    if    we    are 


I20  NATIONAT.    EFFICIENCY 

to  compete  with  them  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  Of 
course,  no  confiscation  of  existing  property  in  personal 
ownership  could  be  discussed,  and  probably  is  not  enter- 
tained. No  great  reform  has  ever  been  successful  when 
confiscation  was  attempted,  unless  it  were  preceded  by 
revolution.  In  such  comparatively  minor  matters  as  the 
freeing  of  the  slaves,  or  the  disestablishment  of  a  Church, 
existing  interests  have  been  protected  or  have  been  bought 
outright.  Therefore,  in  any  case,  State  Socialism  Iwould 
only  be  introduced  by  degrees.  But  the  growth  of  com- 
munal control  and  of  State  ownership  will  probably  secure 
the  best  of  Socialism  for  us  without  its  inherent  weakness. 
Yet  we  must  go  a  considerable  step  farther  in  State 
control  of  the  resources  of  the  country.  Our  organizing 
ability,  so  widely  distributed,  is  exercised  at  the  present 
time  in  a  wasteful  manner  by  the  commercial  world.  It 
is  almost  an  accident  whether  one  industry  is  developed 
or  another  deserted.  There  is  no  means  of  determining 
whether  an  excess  of  labour  and  capital  are  being  directed 
to  one  industry  and  too  little  to  another.  Profits  may 
be  unreasonably  raised  by  combination  or  unreasonably  de- 
pressed by  competition.  The  consumer  may  be  paying 
too  much  at  one  time  or  too  little  at  another.  If  he  be 
paying  too  little,  he  is  estranging  capital  and  starving 
the  worker.  The  unfair  cheapness  of  an  article  leads  to 
extravagance  and  to  waste.  An  employment  of  labour 
and  capital  in  excess  of  natural  demands  for  a  product 
necessarily  implies  a  withdrawal  from  some  other  employ- 
ment of  both,  more  useful  to  the  community.  That  which 
the  individual  cannot  accomplish  because  he  has  neither 
the  facts  at  his  disposal  nor  the  field  to  survey,  national 
government  should  be  able  to  do.  It  tnay  be  the  duty  of 
the  new  department,  the  Ministry  of  Commerce,  to  con- 
trol the  output  of  the  countrv,  to  see  that  it  is  maintained 
at  the  full,  that  new  industries  are  experimentally  started, 
and  that  an  excess  of  output  in  some  particular  direction 
is  checked.  Already  financial  organizations  of  a  national 
character  have  been  suggested  in  order  that  likely  projects 
may  have  some  support.  In  other  words,  we  are  bound 
to  make  the  best  of  what  we  are  doing  and  can  do.  But 
when  we  have  done  our  share  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
there  will  be  work  which  it  will  pav  us  better  to  have 
done  elsewhere.  There  are  great  Dependencies  of  the 
Empire  where  coloured  labour  should  have  an  opportunity. 


ORGANIZATION    OF    NATIONAL    RESOURCES      121 

The  intelligence  of  Eastern  races  is  quite  competent  to 
factory  work,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  Eastern 
markets  should  not  be  supplied  from  the  labour  of  our 
coloured  fellow -subjects,  particularly  where  the  raw  material 
is  grown  at  their  doors.  Provided  the  labour  of  the  United 
Kingdom  is  fully  employed,  the  Indian  worker  should  have 
his  share.  Mills  could  be  run  with  shorter  shifts  than 
in  this  country  under  good  sanitary  conditions .  The  Oriental 
worker  requires  less  animal  food  and  less  clothing,  because 
the  heat  of  the  sun  makes  up  for  the  difference  between 
him  and  the  European. 

There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  a  much  better  wage 
could  be  paid  to  the  Eastern  worker  than  he  has  ever 
received,  enabling  him  to  lift  his  scale  of  living  ;  whilst 
the  cost  of  production  would  be  reduced  by  not  having 
to  bring  the  raw  material  to  this  country  and  to  export 
it  to  the  original  source  of  supply  across  half  the  world 
in  the  form  of  manufactured  goods.  In  any  part  of  the 
world  the  minimum  wage  must  be  determined  upon  a  base 
of  comfortable  living,  and  having  disentangled  that  icost 
from  wages  and  fixed  it  from  time  to  time  by  local  com- 
mittees (as  at  present  in  coal -mining),  the  share  which 
labour  should  have  in  profit  should  be  a  simpler  problem: 
in  most  cases,  to  be  arranged  perhaps  on  sliding  scale  like 
that  which  secured  industrial  peace  for  many  years  in 
South  Wales  during  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century. 
Whilst  a  liberal  share  must  be  reserved  for  labour,  it 
would  be  remembered  that  labour  is  a  first  charge  upon 
gross  profits  and  is  paid  with  definite  regularity.  There 
are  capitalist  profits  unreasonably  large,  but  there  are  also 
failures  and  bankruptcies,  which  form  part  of  the  average 
in  reckoning  the  return  made  to  capital.  Greater  con- 
fidence, a  disclosure  of  facts,  would  solve  many  of  the 
difiiculties  between  employer  and  employed  ;  difficulties 
which  are  often  due  to  misconception.  In  those  excep- 
tional cases  where  profits  are  too  large  the  nation  can 
recover  that  which  has  temporarily  escaped  its  control  by 
means  of  income-tax,  super-tax,  and  death  duties.  These 
last  can  be  trusted  to  reduce  the  largest  estate  to  manage- 
able proportions,  as  they  are  imposed  again  and  again 
upon  successive  transfers  of  the  original  property. 

We  venture  to  say  that  if  the  problems  which  will  be 
successively  presented  to  us  are  handled  with  courage  and 
enterprise,  there  is  no  reason  to   fe^r  that  the   world  will 


122  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY, 

not  want  us  for  many  years  to  come  in  the  various  services 
vv^hich  we  have  rendered  in  the  past  with  so  much  effect. 
An  economy  in  direction  of  oux  powers  is  demanded.  Our 
energies,  instead  of  being  spread  over  too  wide  an  area 
like  a  great  river  finding  its  way  to  the  sea  through  a 
delta  of  small  streams  and  marshland,  will  have  to  be 
confined  in  deep  charmels,  restrained  by  embankment,  and 
utilized  to  the  utmost.  Given  peace  and  goodwill,  there 
is  no  doubt  this  country  will  be  able  to  discharge  its  liabili- 
ties, carry  its  taxation,  and  reduce  its  debt  with  the  same 
ease  with  which  it  has  pursued  its  way  during  a  period 
of  unrestrained  individualism .  We  are  coming  more  closely 
together,  and  this  sense  of  common  citizenship  will  prove 
even  commercially  profitable. 


CHAPTER    VII 

The   State   and   Industry 

By  WM.  GARNETT,  M.A.,  D.C.L., 
Formerly  Educational  Adviser  to  the  London  County  Council 

What  has  the  State  to  do  with  Industry?  Most  British 
manufacturers  have  hitherto  held  that  the  less  the  Stater 
interferes  with  industry  the  better  for  all  concerned.  They 
have  asked  only  to  be  allowed  to  go  their  own  way  with 
as  little  factory  legislation  and  inspection  as  possible.  They 
have  held  that  they  know  their  own  business  best  and 
would  be  hindered  rather  than  helped  by  any  interference 
from  without,  however  well  intentioned  it  might  be.  In 
their  opinion  the  functions  of  Government  lie  entirely  out- 
side the  field  of  industry  or  commerce,  except  to  see  fair  play 
between  parties.  The  Ministers  of  the  Crown  may  there- 
fore be  lawyers  and  politicians,  and  the  permanent  officers 
of  the  State  may  be  purely  administrative.  No  know- 
ledge of  science,  industry,  or  commerce  need  be  required 
of  them.  If  an  industrial  leader  rise  to  Cabinet  rank  it 
is  an  accident  and  of  rare  occurrence,  while  there  is  no 
record  of  a  man  of  scientific  attainments  attaining  that 
dignity.  Perhaps  Lord  Playfair  most  nearly  approached 
it.  The  unqualified  attitude  of  competition  w'hich  obtains 
throughout  British  industry,  and  the  spirit  of  individualism 
which  largely  characterizes  the  schools  and  the  whole  up- 
bringing of  the  commercial  and  industrial  classes  in  this 
country,  have  tended  to  encoiu"age  the  view  that  industry 
and  commerce  should  be  left  to  fight  their  own  battles  with 
as  little  interference  as  possible  on  the  part  of  the  State. 
The  manufacturer  pays  his  income-tax  with  a  subconscious 
impression  that  it  is  an  item  of  entirely  unproductive 
expenditure . 

But  there  have  been  exceptions  to  the  attitude  of  oppo- 

133 


124  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

sition  to  Governmental  interference.  As  long  as  home 
markets  are  held  exclusively  by  home  manufacturers  and 
competition  is  purely  domestic  the  State  may  stand  aside. 
When  foreign  goods  find  their  way  into  British  markets 
some  leaders  of  industry  say  that  this  enables  the  foreigner 
to  pay  for  British  goods  sold  to  him  and  encourages  British 
trade  abroad,  but  others  invoke  the  State  to  institute  a 
protective  tariff  ;  and  when  the  foreigner  takes  to  supply- 
ing his  own  market  with  goods  formerly  made  in  Britain, 
so  that  the  balance  of  trade  is  against  this  country,  the 
cry  for  a  protective  tariff  becomes  more  general.  Thfe 
manufacturer  has  not  hitherto  asked  the  State  to  help  him 
to  produce  better  or  cheaper  goods,  or  even  to  assist  him 
in  opening  up  foreign  markets  and  securing  foreign  con- 
tracts. The  spirit  of  competition  has  prevented  any  such 
united  action  on  the  part  of  the  trades,  which  have  been 
very  slow  even  in  inviting  the  co-operation  of  men  of 
science  in  charge  of  public  laboratories,  partly  because  they 
have  had  little  confidence  in  the  assistance  they  could 
render,  and  partly  on  account  of  unwillingness  to  share 
information.  There  is  one  case,  other  than  the  imposition 
of  a  tariff,  in  which  State  assistance  has  not  always  been 
unwelcome  either  to  industrial  capital  or  labour.  In  the 
event  of  disputes  leading  to  strikes  the  mediation  of  the 
Board   of  Trade   has  sometimes   been  useful. 

Hitherto  association  among  employers  has  existed  in  this 
country  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  for  two  purposes — to 
defend  themselves  against  the  demands  of  labour,  and  to 
keep  up  prices  against  the  consumer.  It  is  sel'dom,  if  ever, 
that  an  association  of  manufacturers  has  existed  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  out  experimental  investigations  in  their 
common  interest,  or  distributing  work  among  the  several 
members  so  that  it  may  be  carried  out  in  the  cheapest  way 
possible  in  the  interest  of  the  consumer  and  of  British 
trade  in  foreign  markets,  or  of  organizing  a  system  of 
training  for  different  grades  of  employees. 

If  home  production  and  home  consumption  alone  had 
to  be  considered,  the  trades  would  not  be  much  the  worse 
off  for  this  system  of  competitive  individualism  ;  but  when 
foreign  consumption  of  home-made  goods  and  home  con- 
sumption of  foreign  goods  come  to  the  front  thfe  case 
takes  an  entirely  different  aspect,  and,  if  British  industry 
is  to  hold  its  own  under  these  conditions,  there  must  be 
association   for   industrial   research,   for   the   distribution  of 


THE  STATE  AND  INDUSTRY       125 

work,  and  for  the  training  of  all  grades  of  workers.  In 
the  first  and  last  of  these  objects  the  State  is  able  to 
co-operate  with  the  trades. 

The  war  has  taught  us  much  with  regard  to  industrial 
possibilities,  especially  with  respect  to  the  help  which 
industry  can  receive  from  unexpected  quarters.  States- 
men, administrators,  manufacturers,  teachers  have  all  had 
before  them  object-lessons,  in  which  they  have,  in  many 
cases,  themselves  taken  part,  and  many  of  the  old  tradi- 
tions which  have  been  accepted  without  experimental 
investigation  have  been  blown  to  the  winds  by  the 
exigencies  of  war.  Much  that  has  been  done  during  the 
last  two  years  lies  for  the  present  under  the  cover  iof 
the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Act,  but  there  are  some  illus- 
trations which  are  already  public  property.  For  example, 
soon  after  the  war  broke  out  there  was  a  great  dearth  of 
chemical  glassware  which  would  sustain  rapid  variation  of 
temperature  without  fracture,  and  analytical  chemists  as 
well  as  chemical  manufacturers  were  in  some  difficulty. 
Such  glass  had  not  been  made  in  England,  but  the  in- 
vestigations of  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Institute  of 
Chemistry  and  aided  especially  by  Professor  Jackson,  of 
King's  College,  have  led  to  the  solution  of  the  problem, 
and  chemical  glassware  is  now  made  in  this  country  of  a 
quality  equal  to  the  Jena  ware  and  at  approximately  the 
same  price.  There  was  a  similar  difficulty  with  regard 
to  hard  porcelain,  and  this  also  has  been  solved  in  the 
pottery  school  at  Stoke-on-Trent.  When  the  Ministry  of 
Munitions  commenced  the  establishment  of  shell  factories 
all  over  the  country  the  initial  difficulty  lay  in  the  provision 
of  gauges  for  the  inspectors.  The  ordinary  fuse  of  an 
1 8 -lb.  shell  is  made  of  so  many  parts,  that  something 
like  eighty  gauges  are  required  for  testing  them  before 
they  are  assembled  to  form  the  fuse.  It  was  consequently 
announced  eighteen  months  ago  that  70,000  gauges  were 
required  as  quickly  as  possible  for  the  use  of  in- 
spectors, and  as  a  rule  each  gauge  must  be  correct  to 
three  ten -thousandths  of  an  inch.  The  country  had  been 
dependent  very  largely  on  the  Continent  for  precision  tools. 
British  toolmakers  were  already  overcrowded  with  work, 
and  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  had  recourse  to  what  the 
trade  would  certainly  have  regarded  as  a  dernier  ressort 
viz.  the  technical  schools — with  such  success  that  it  is  prob- 
able that  very  nearly   100,000  gauges  will  have  been  made 


126  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

by  these  institutions  and  accepted  by  the  Government  before 
the  end  of  the  year  (191 6).  Not  only  gauges,  though, 
on  account  of  the  dehcacy  of  the  work,  these  are  by  far 
the  most  important  items  turned  out  by  the  engineering 
departments  of  the  schools,  but  parts  of  machine  tools  and 
many  other  items  requiring  considerable  skill  in  execution 
are  among  the  work  executed  by  the  schools  for  the  Ministry 
of  Munitions,  the  War  Office,  or  the  Admiralty.  That 
technical  institutions  could  successfully  cope  with  emer- 
gency work  in  this  way  caused  almost  as  much  surprise  to 
British  manufacturers  as  the  response  of  such  democratic 
countries  as  France  and  Britain  and  her  Dependencies  to 
the  call  of  war  created  in  the  minds  of  Central  Europe. 

But  not  only  tools  but  men  were  required  for  the  manu- 
facture of  munitions  of  war,  and  herein  came  another 
surprise  even  to  those  who  had  been  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  training  of  mechanical  engineers.  Nearly  25  per 
cent,  of  the  men  employed  in  the  engineering  trades  of 
this  country  had  joined  the  colours.  It  was  important  that, 
as  far  as  possible,  ordinary  engineering  work  should  be 
continued  in  order  that  we  might  have  something  to  give 
in  exchange  for  imported  food,  but  the  demand  for  shells 
was  paramount.  Classes  in  fitting  and  turning  were  con- 
sequently established  in  the  workshops  of  many  educational 
institutions,  and  some  schools  were  specially  equipped  for 
the  purpose.  Later  on  tool -setting  was  added  to  the 
subjects  taught.  The  classes  were  attended  by  clerks, 
artists,  barristers,  and  many  others  who  had  never  handled 
engineers'  tools,  including  women  of  almost  all  ages,  as 
well  as  men  of  advanced  years  who  had  been  engineers 
in  their  youth  ;  and  it  was  found  that  an  "  intensive  " 
course  of  instruction,  extending  over  150  hours  (half-time 
for  six  weeks),  was  sufficient  to  enable  these  nondescript 
workers  to  earn  a  living  wage  in  a  shell  factory,  with 
prospects  of  rapid  increase  to  50s.  or  60s,  a  week.  Here, 
again,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  technical  departments  of 
the  schools  can  render  service  of  the  most  practical 
character  to  the  State.  Probably  nearly  20,000  workers 
have  been  thus  trained.  Lens  grinding  for  optical  instru- 
ments is  another  subject  which  has  been  similarly  taught. 

Another  point  which  has  been  brought  into  prominence 
by  the  national  emergency  is  the  value  of  scientific  organiza- 
tion in  works.  Not  only  has  this  enabled  unskilled  and 
semi-skilled  workers  to  be  employed  to  the  greatest  advan- 


THE    STATE    AND    INDUSTRY  127. 

tage  on  work  which  in  former  days  would  have  been 
carried  out  exclusively  by  skilled  men,  but  with  the  with- 
drawal of  artificial  limitations  it  has  been  found  possible 
in  this  country,  as  in  America,  greatly  to  increase  the 
output  per  man  and  per  machine  without  inflicting  any 
hardship  upon  labour,  and  workmen  have  learned  that  imder 
war  conditions  there  is  no  limit  to  demand,  and  wages 
increase  in  proportion  as  the  work  is  speeded  up.  It 
may,  of  course,  be  contended  that  the  great  advantage 
which  has  accrued  to  the  workman  through  withdrawal 
of  all  limitations  upon  output  has  been  due  to  the  excep- 
tional pressure  of  war  conditions  ;  but  America  has  proved 
that  similar  advantages  to  the  worker  obtain  in  time  of 
peace.  In  America  the  hours  of  work  are  not  longer, 
but  the  workman  earns  more  than  double  the  wages  earned 
in  this  country  because  his  output  is  more  than  double  ; 
and  this  output  has  not  choked  the  markets  of  the  world, 
because  there  is  an  unlimited  demand  for  manufactured 
goods  if  only  they  can  be  produced  at  a  sufficiently  low 
price.  The  increased  output  per  man,  though  it  raises 
his  wages  in  the  same  or  higher  ratio,  actually  lowers 
the  cost  of  production  because  it  means  increased  output 
per  machine,  and  machines  do  not  receive  wages,  and  it 
means  increased  output  for  the  buUdings  and  establish- 
ment, and  the  cost  of  upkeep  and  of  management  is  not 
increased  in  the  same  ratio.  If  the  workers  of  the  country 
will  remember  the  lessons  of  the  war  in  this  respect,  and 
if  employers  will  abstain  from  putting  any  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  greatly  increased  wages,  provided  they  are 
fairly  earned — although  it  may  be  that  the  piece-worker 
earns  more  than  his  foreman,  just  as  in  the  public  service 
a  professional  expert  may  earn  more  than  his  administra- 
tive chief — Britain  may  hope  after  the  war  to  put  forth 
her  whole  industrial  strength  in  order  to  win  back  her 
claim  to  be  the  "  workshop  of  the  world,"  instead  of  work- 
ing at  less  than  half -power  as  of  late  years.  These  are 
questions  which  cannot  easily  be  controlled  by  the  State  ; 
they  depend  upon  the  voluntary  action  of  employers  and 
employed  ;  but  something  might  be  done  in  the  schools 
to  bring  about  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  economic 
problem  involved  without  the  necessity  of  State  control 
of  works. 

How    can    the    State    aid    British    industry?       I    do    not 
propose    to    enter    into    the    vexed    question    of    -  Tariff 


128  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

Reform."  New  industries  which  are  important  to  the  State 
require  protection  during  their  infancy  like  all  other 
young  creatures  belonging  to  the  higher  orders,  but  it 
may  fairly  be  contended  that  direct  assistance  during  the 
years  of  development  is  more  useful  than  a  protective 
tariff  ;  for  though  the  tariff  may  secure  the  home  market 
against  the  competition  of  foreign  goods  produced  at  lower 
cost,  in  order  that  foreign  markets  may  be  open  to  British 
goods  the  actual  cost  of  production  must  be  brought  down 
to  the  foreign  cost,  and  this  reduction  in  cost  is  not  hastened 
by  a  protective  tariff. 

If  industry  is  to  be  encouraged  by  the  State,  the  Execu- 
tive Government  must  first  realize  that  it  has  some  respon- 
sibilities for  the  development  of  British  industry.  It  is 
not  sufficient  to  increase  the  territorial  area  of  the  Empire 
if  foreigners  are  permitted  to  secure  monopolies  over  the 
mineral  wealth  of  the  Dependencies.  Arrangements  by 
which  plant  or  machinery  for  dealing  with  the  mineral 
resources  of  the  country  is  erected  by  foreigners,  to  be 
paid  for  by  a  monopoly  of  the  products  for  a  term  of 
years,  should  be  legalized  only  when  the  Board  of  Trade 
is  satisfied  on  scientific  evidence  that  the  proposed  monopoly 
is  not  inimical  to  British  interests.  But  the  most  important 
demand  on  the  attention  of  the  Government  is  the  entire 
absence  in  this  country  of  the  manufacture  of  goods  which 
are  necessaries  of  life  or  essential  to  the  conduct  of  war. 
Attention  has  been  called  in  the  preceding  pages  to  some 
features  of  industry  which  have  been  revealed  by  the 
present  war,  but  probably  nothing  has  caused  so  much 
surprise  to  the  public  generally  as  the  revelation  of  the 
extent  to  which  we  have  been  dependent  on  foreign  nations 
for  manufactured  articles  which  have  become  the  neces- 
saries of  life  and  of  civilization.  Some  years  before  the 
declaration  of  war  the  writer  was  interested  in  representa- 
tions made  to  certain  Government  departments  on  the 
question  of  the  production  of  optical  glass  and  the  manu- 
facture of  optical  instruments.  The  position  was  that  we 
simply  did  not  know  how  to  make  certain  glasses  employed 
in  the  most  important  instruments  required  by  the  Admiralty 
and  the  War  Office  and  for  other  scientific  purposes,  and 
the  assistance  of  the  Government  'was  sought  for  a  scheme  of 
laboratory  investigations  similar  to  those  which  had  rendered 
possible  the  Jena  glassworks.  It  was  pointed  out  that  in 
the  event  of  European  war  the  Navy  and  Army  would  be 


THE    STATE    AND    INDUSTRY  129 

unable  to  secure  the  necessary  supply  of  range-finders,  gun- 
sights,  binoculars,  and  other  essential  instruments,  but  the 
reply  was  to  the  effect  that  the  assistance,  if  granted,  would 
create  an  inconvenient  precedent.  Although  an  extensive 
system  of  commandeering  optical  instruments  was  adopted, 
there  are  those  who  maintain  that  thousands  of  lives  were 
lost  during  the  early  months  of  the  war  through  lack  of 
sufficient  optical  instruments  at  the  front.  Since  those  days 
precedents  have  been  ignored,  and  experience  has  shown 
that  if  the  aid  of  the  scientific  investigators  who  were  readily 
available  had  been  secured  the  situation  could  have  been 
saved.  The  position  of  this  country  and  America  with 
regard  to  dyestuffs  is  too  well  known  to  need  more  than 
a  passing  mention.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to 
glass  and  porcelain  for  chemical  purposes.  For  very  many 
drugs  we  were,  and  still  are,  dependent  on  foreign  sources. 
The  need  for  local  anaesthetics  came  very  prominently  to 
the  front  at  an  early  stage,  and  here  the  chemical  labora- 
tories and  teaching  staffs  of  many  educational  institutions 
were  requisitioned  to  serve  the  military  hospitals.  In  the 
hardware  trade  not  only  the  public,  but  in  many  cases  the 
retail  shopkeepers,  were  ignorant  of  the  sources  of  supply 
of  the  goods  they  bought  and  sold.  Purchases  were  made 
by  provincial  retailers  through  London  factors,  and  a 
dealer  informed  the  writer  that  until  supplies  were  stopped 
through  the  war  he  had  no  knowledge  that  three -fourths 
of  the  tools  he  sold  were  of  German  manufacture. 

It  may  fairly  be  contended  that  it  is  a  primary  duty 
on  the  part  of  the  State  to  secure  that  the  country  shall 
not  be  dependent  on  a  possible  enemy  State  for  such  essen- 
tials as  drugs  and  optical  and  chemical  apparatus,  and, 
whatever  the  cost,  persons  should  receive  the  requisite 
training  and  works  should  be  established  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  all  necessary  goods  for  the  supply  of  which  we 
arc  at  present  restricted  to  a  very  limited  number  of  foreign 
sources.  If  it  were  suggested  that  we  should  abandon 
our  arsenals  and  dockyards  because  we  can  buy  foreign 
guns  and  warships  more  cheaply  than  we  can  build  them, 
the  absurdity  of  the  proposal  would  be  at  once  apparent. 
But  ships  and  guns  are  of  little  use  without  auxiliary 
appliances,  and  it  is  only  necessary  for  this  to  be  clearly 
appreciated  to  make  manifest  the  folly  of  relegating  to 
foreign  countries  the  manufacture  of  these  appliances,  or 
fhe    preparation    of   any   of   the    materials    on    which    their 

9 


I30  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

manufacture  depends,  simply  because  the  work  done  lat 
home  does  not  pay.  It  seems  a  far  cry  from  a  Dread- 
nought to  a  test-tube,  but  a  warship  is  of  little  use  without 
explosives,  or  a  submarine  without  a  periscope,  and  the 
manufacture  of  explosives  or  of  optical  glass  is  a  delicate 
chemical  process  which  has  to  be  watched  and  tested  at  all 
stages.  Without  the  experimental  apparatus  of  the  laboratory 
the  work  of  the  explosives  factory  is  impossible.  It  is  only 
by  this  far-sighted  pohcy  of  keeping  an  eye  on  every  essen- 
tial detail,  however  apparently  remote  from  the  main  issue, 
that  a  'war  can  be  successfully  waged,  and  much  the  same  is 
true  of  industrial  competition. 

The  Government  has  already  taken  one  important  step 
in  recognition  of  its  duties  towards  industry.  In  July 
191 5  a  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  was  formed  "for 
Scientific  and  .Industrial  Research,"  aided  by  an  Advisory 
Council  of  men  well  known  in  science  and  industry.  A 
sum  of  £25,000  was  entrusted  to  the  Committee  for  the 
first  year,  and  the  grant  has  been  increased  by  £40,000 
for  the  current  year.  The  Advisory  Council  has  appointed 
Standing  Committees  for  Engineering,  Metallurgy,  and 
Mining,  and  others  are  in  contemplation.  To  these  com- 
mittees will  be  referred  particular  questions  relating  to  their 
respective  groups  of  industries.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
Advisory  Council  to  make  and  consider  proposals  for  insti- 
tuting specific  researches  ;  for  "  establishing  or  developing 
special  institutions  or  departments  of  existing  institutions 
for  the  scientific  study  of  problems  affecting  particular  in- 
dustries and  trades  ;  and  for  the  establishment  and  award 
of  Research  Scholarships  and  Fellowships."  The  researches 
which  have  already  been  aided  include,  among  others, 
laboratory  glass,  optical  glass,  refractory  materials  for 
furnace  work,  the  properties  of  insulating  oils,  the  corro- 
sion of  non-ferrous  metals,  hard  porcelain,  tin,  and  tungsten, 
and  the  deterioration  of  structures  of  timber,  metal,  and 
concrete  in  sea -water,  as  well  as  the  conservation  of  coal. 

This  departure  on  the  part  of  the  Government  is  a  very 
distinct  recognition  of  an  important  responsibility,  a  respon- 
sibility which  has  been  further  recognized  by  the  assistance 
rendered  to  the  manufacture  of  dyestuffs.  The  success 
which  is  likely  to  be  achieved  depends  very  much  on 
the  response  of  the  leaders  of  industry.  The  State,  whether 
acting  through  the  Privy  Council  Committee  or  otherwise, 
can  assist  an  industry  ;    it  cannot,  as  a  rule,  assist  a  par- 


THE  STATE  AND  INDUSTRY       131 

ticular  firm  which  may  be  one  of  many.  In  order,  there- 
fore, that  any  trade  may  secure  the  full  benefit  of  the 
action  of  the  Government  it  must  be  prepared  to  combine 
for  the  purpose  of  industrial  research  ;  and,  if  it  is  to 
produce  at  the  lowest  cost,  the  objects  of  the  combination 
must  include  distribution  of  work  among  the  several 
manufacturers  and  the  training  of  all  grades  of  workers.' 

One  of  the  most  hopeful  results  of  the  present  war  con- 
ditions has  been  the  increased  willingness  of  the  leaders 
of  industry  to  form  associations  for  some,  at  least,  of  the 
purposes  indicated  above  ;  but  what  has  been  eff'ected  in 
this  direction  is  a  very  small  fraction  of  what  is  required. 
For  purposes  of  industrial  research  trade  associations  may, 
to  some  extent,  be  replaced  by  the  Standing  Committees 
formed  by  the  Advisory  Council,  but  the  essential  feature 
of  success  is  the  "  pooling  "  of  information,  and  this  must 
be  a  voluntary  act  on  the  part  of  manufacturers.  The 
trade  association  must  take  stock  of  its  methods  and  diffi- 
culties, and  select  the  subjects  on  which  investigation  is 
required.  It  must  then  make  a  schedule  of  public  insti- 
tutions (university  departments,  technical  schools,  etc.)  in 
which  provision  has  been,  or  can  be,  made  for  experi- 
mental work  in  connection  with  the  trade  and  also  of  the 
scientific  workers  available.     This  schedule  should  be  pre- 

'  Since  this  article  was  written  the  Government  has  made  an  important 
announcement  with  reference  to  industrial  and  scientific  research.  It  was  on 
the  1st  December,  1916,  in  reply  to  a  deputation  introduced  by  the  President  of 
the  Royal  Society,  and  supported  by  the  President  of  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers  and  by  Professor  Baker  of  the  Imperial  College,  that  Lord  Crewe, 
then  Lord  President  of  the  Council,  announced  that  a  Royal  Charter  had  been 
granted  to  the  official  members  of  the  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  for 
Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  under  the  title  of  "  The  Imperial  Trust  for  the 
Encouragement  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research,"  so  as  to  enable  it  to  hold 
land  and  personal  property  for  the  furtherance  of  its  objects  ;  and  in  order  that 
it  should  not  be  entirely  dependent  from  year  to  year  on  Parliamentary  grants, 
in  as  much  as  its  work  must  be  continuous  from  year  to  year,  it  had  been 
decided  to  anticipate  five  years'  expenditure  on  a  scale  of  five  times  the  current 
rate  by  a  single  grant  to  be  paid  over  to  the  Imperial  Trust.  It  is  understood 
that  this  sum,  which  must  be  of  the  order  of  ;^i,ooo,ooo,  is  in  addition  to  any  sum 
which  may  be  voted  in  the  annual  Estimates,  and  its  expenditure  will  be 
restricted  to  research  undertaken  in  connection  with  trade  associations  which 
will  utilize  the  results  for  the  benefit  of  the  trade  generally.  In  this  way  the 
fund  will  be  used  to  encourage  the  formation  of  such  associations.  Lord  Crewe 
also  announced  that  the  Board  of  Inland  Revenue  had  agreed  that  contributions 
made  under  suitable  conditions  by  traders  to  industrial  associations  formed  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  scientific  research,  or  to  the  research  section  of  an  existing 
association,"should  be  free  of  income-tax  and  of  excess-profits  tax. 


132  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

pared  in  consultation  with  the  Advisory  Council  or  one 
of  its  Standing  Committees.  In  many  cases  it  will  be 
found  that  the  existing  provision  for  experimental  work  is 
insufficient  or  wholly  wanting,  and  it  should  then  be  the 
business  of  the  Advisory  Council,  in  concert  with  the  trade 
association,  to  make  the  necessary  provision  in  a  central 
institution,  conducted  more  or  less  after  the  model  of  the 
National  Physical  Laboratory,  or  a  local  school,  like  the 
Pottery  School  at  Stoke-on-Trent.  While  some,  ^nd  it 
is  hoped  many,  investigations  will  originate  with  the  trades, 
others  will  be  suggested  by  the  Standing  Committees  of 
the  Advisory  Council,  and  many  others  by  the  scientific 
workers  who  are  engaged  in  carrying  out  the  experi- 
mental work. 

It  has  been  customary  for  so-called  "  practical  men  " 
to  disparage  the  assistance  which  scientific  workers  can 
render  to  industry,  and  that  not  altogether  without  reason. 
Too  often  the  scientific  adviser  employed  in  a  works  is  a 
young  man  at  a  very  low  salary  who  has  had  no  oppor- 
tunity of  gaining  experience  outside  his  college  laboratory. 
It  would  not  be  reasonable  to  place  a  medical  student  in 
the  consulting -room  of  a  specialist  and  condemn  medicine 
because  his  experience  was  not  adequate  to  the  needs  of 
the  situation.  Another  reason  why,  in  this  country,  industry 
has  not  received  as  much  help  from  science  as  among  some 
of  our  industrial  rivals  is  that,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
scientific  professor  has  kept  aloof  from  industry  in  his 
university  laboratory  and  has  frequently  been  prevented 
from  taking  any  part  in  commercial  work  ;  the  manufac- 
turer, on  the  other  hand,  has  not  taken  the  scientific  worker 
into  his  confidence  or  attempted  to  use  his  ability  and 
resources  to  the  best  advantage.  It  has  been  stated  that  if  a 
professor  of  mechanics  were  taken  round  a  weaving  shed  he 
would  probably  suggest  a  number  of  alterations  in  existing 
practice,  only  to  learn  that  all  these  had  been  tried  and  for 
good  reason  abandoned  long  ago  and  that  the  present  system 
was  the  best  that  could  be  devised.  This  would  probably 
be  quite  true,  as  far  as  the  suggestions  are  concerned,  if  it 
were  the  professor's  first  visit  to  a  weaving  shed.  Im- 
provements in  industrial  processes  are  not  generally  made 
on  the  first  half-hour's  acquaintance.  If  scientific  and 
industrial  research  are  to  be  of  full  value  to  industry, 
the  researchers  must,  in  many  cases,  live  in  close  touch 
with    the    industry.       The    gap    between    the     professor's 


THE  STATE  AND  INDUSTRY       133 

laboratory  and  the  factory  must  be  bridged.  Lord 
Kelvin  was  a  scientific  instrument  maker  (Kelvin  and 
White)  for  part  of  his  time,  a  practical  yachtsman  for 
another  part,  and  a  professor  conducting  a  research 
laboratory  with  the  help  of  his  own  students  only  when 
he  was  not  engaged  in  some  other  enterprise. 

Sometimes  a  new  discovery  can  be  at  once  adapted  to 
commercial  requirements,  but  this  is  not  often  the  case. 
Those  scientific  researches  which  have  revolutionized  indus- 
tries have  frequently  required  a  long  time  for  their 
development,    which    has   taken    place   in   three   stages. 

1 .  The  purely  scientific  research  which  has  led  to  the 
discovery.  This  may  have  been  conducted  with  a  totally 
different  object,  or  purely  for  the  purp>ose  of  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  The  less  the  State 
or  any  other  authority  attempts  to  "  organize  "  scientific 
work  of  this  description  the  better. 

2.  Adaptation  and  Standardization.  In  this  stage  the 
discovery  has  to  be  adapted  to  industrial  requirements  so 
as  to  be  commercially  useful_,  and  processes  of  manufac- 
ture and  mechanical  parts  have  to  be  standardized  so  that 
they  can  be  reproduced  with  precision.  A  vast  amount 
of  scientific  labour  was  required  before  Faraday's  apparatus 
for  producing  a  magnetic  spark  gave  place  to  the  dynamos 
capable  of  a  specified  output  with  a  specified  efficiency 
when  driven  at  a  specified  speed. 

3.  Commercialization,  involving  the  design  and  manu- 
facture of  plant  capable  of  turning  out  the  product  on  a 
commercial  scale. 

It  is  in  the  second  of  these  stages  that  organized  State 
aid  can  be  made  most  efi"ective.  It  must  be  carried  out 
on  a  semi -commercial  scale,  because  reactions  in  a  test- 
tube  may  be  very  different  from  those  in  a  steam  pan. 
The  work  is  essentially  industrial  research. 

The  process  of  mining  coal  affords  an  illustration  of  the 
three  stages  of  investigation  through  which  an  invention 
may  have  to  pass  before  it  can  be  utilized  in  commercial 
manufacture.  In  the  first  instance  a  small  hole  is  bored 
and  the  cores  are  carefully  examined  by  experts.  This 
is  a  purely  scientific  investigation.  The  result  is  simply 
an  increase  of  knowledge.  Neither  the  hole  nor  the  core 
is  of  any  commercial  value.  If  no  coal  is  reached,  the 
investigation  has  to  be  abandoned  in  that  particular  spot. 
If  seams  of  coal  of  workable  thickness  are  found,  scientific 


134  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

research  passes  into  the  stage  of  industrial  research  and 
shafts  must  be  sunk  to  render  the  coal  available.  This 
operation  may  be  far  from  a  simple  and  straightforward 
proceeding.  Sinking  a  shaft  differs  from  boring  a  small 
hole  to  the  same  depth.  Running  sand  may  be  met,  which 
has  to  be  frozen  before  it  can  be  excavated,  and  the  neces- 
sary tubbing  inserted  to  line  the  shaft.  Other  difficulties, 
foreseen  and  unforeseen,  may  occur,  but  the  objective  is 
perfectly  definite.  Engineering  skill,  time,  labour,  and 
capital  are  all  that  are  required. 

When  the  shafts  have  been  sunk  to  reach  the  coal  they 
must  be  connected  underground,  the  necessary  wagon 
ways  must  be  started,  and  all  the  apparatus  for  hauling, 
winding,  ventilating,  screening,  and  loading,  together  with 
many  other  subordinate  appliances,  must  be  provided  before 
the  coal  can  be  worked  on  a  commercial  scale.  The 
whole  process  affords  a  somewhat  crude  illustration  of  the 
stages  of  investigation,  adaptation,  and  commercialization 
necessary  in  order  that  the  work  of  the  scientific  researcher 
may  produce  results  of  industrial  value. 

There  is  another  type  of  industrial  research  of  a  simpler 
character  in  which  the  object  is  to  remove  some  difficulty 
or  uncertainty  in  a  manufacturing  process,  or,  perhaps,  to 
discover  some  more  economical  method  of  carrying  out  an 
operation.  Here  the  investigator  has  a  distinct  object  in 
view  towards  which  alone  he  works.  In  the  course  of  his 
investigation  he  may  possibly  alight  on  some  independent 
discovery,  if  his  mind  is  on  the  alert  and  his  eyes  are  open 
for  side  issues,  but  the  original  investigation  is  a  problem 
of  a  definite  type  enunciated  by  the  trade  to  meet  a  felt 
want. 

If  research  is  to  be  successful  there  must  be  an  adequate 
supply  of  scientific  workers.  The  reference  to  the  Advisory 
Council  covers  the  provision  of  higher  scholarships  for  the 
training  of  these  workers,  and  the  Consultative  Committee 
of  the  Board  of  Education  is  recommending  the  Govern- 
ment to  provide  £200,000  a  year  for  school  and  univer- 
sity scholarships  leading  up  to  these.  But  if  Britain  is  to 
put  forth  all  her  industrial  strength,  trade  associations  must 
co-operate  with  the  State  in  a  vastly  greater  educational 
reform  than  is  indicated  by  the  provision  of  scholarships, 
however  numerous  and  valuable.  The  first  and  greatest 
task  is  to  develop  in  all  schools  that  spirit  of  collectivism 
which  is  encouraged  in  the  universities  and  public  schools 


THE    STATE    AND    INDUSTRY  135 

by  means  of  sports.  The  footballer  plays  for  his  team 
and  the  oarsman  rows  for  his  boat.  In  the  field  he  will 
fight  for  the  honour  of  his  brigade.  The  spirit  of  the 
classroom  in  the  competition  for  places,  prizes,  and  scholar- 
ships is  purely  individualistic.  It  has  been  said  that  in 
the  present  war  the  gneat  public  schools  and  the  poiblic 
elementary  schools  have  shown  up  better  than  the  ordinary 
secondary  schools,  from  which  the  majority  of  those 
engaged  in  commerce  and  in  directing  industry  are  drawn. 
We  do  not  want  the  schools  to  become  a  tool  in  the 
hands  of  the  State  for  "  educating  "  children  to  regard 
themselves  merely  as  pawns  to  be  moved  about  by  a 
military  despotism.  They  must  regard  themselves  as  intel- 
ligent citizens  with  freedom  of  action,  like  the  football 
player,  but  that  freedom  subordinated  to  the  common  weal. 
Self-interest  is  to  be  respected,  but  the  claims  of  the  com- 
munity come  first.  Knowledge  is  to  be  shared  and  not 
used  for  purely  selfish  ends.  The  interest  of  the  community 
will  in  the  long  run  make  for  the  greatest  happiness  of 
the  individual.  Here  is  the  problem  for  the  schools.  When 
it  has  been  solved,  trade  associations  for  the  advancement 
of  British  industry  will  be  possible. 

The  second  problem,  which  is  much  easier  for  the  State 
to  handle,  is  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  continuation 
schools  which  shall  provide  at  least  part-time  [education 
for  all  boys  and  girls  up  to  the  age  of  seventeen,  attend- 
ance being  compulsory  and  mostly  during  workshop  hours. 
Here,  again,  there  must  be  co-operation  between  the  trades 
and  the  State,  and  it  is  very  desirable  that  such  co-opera- 
tion should  be  voluntary,  the  trades  falling  in  with  the 
legislation  necessary  to  give  effect  to  the  scheme.  In  the 
continuation  school  the  interest  of  the  work  must  focus 
upon  the  daily  occupation  of  the  pupils,  except  that  in 
the  case  of  those  engaged  in  "  blind-alley  occupations  " 
some  permanent  employment  in  which  the  pupil  is  interested 
must  be  selected  by  him  as  the  guide  to  his  training. 
Focussing  the  interest  in  employment  does  not  mean  that 
the  education  provided  is  wholly,  or  even  mostly,  technical. 

Outside  the  continuation  schools  provision  must  be  made 
in  State-aided  schools  for  all  grades  of  workers,  including 
works  managers,  scientific  advisers,  and  industrial  states- 
men. These  courses  should  be  sketched  in  the  first  instance 
by  the  trade  associations,  as  has  been  done  by  the  Man- 
chester engineers  ;    but  this  is  not  the  place  to  enter  upon 


136  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

educational  details.  It  is  necessary,  however,  to  point  out 
that  in  the  schools  of  the  future,  while  attention  must  be 
paid  to  language  and  literature,  children  must  be  brought 
much  more  closely  into  touch  with  their  environment  than 
has  hitherto  been  the  case.  There  is  more  of  "  the 
humanities  "  in  the  construction  of  a  toy  or  the  making 
of  a  simple  experiment,  carried  out  spontaneously  for  the 
love  of  it,  than  in  a  page  lof  irregular  Latin  verbs  or  in 
the  speculations  of  the  schoolmen. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  State  can  assist 
industry  if  only  manufacturers  in  each  trade  will  combine 
to  co-operate  with  the  State.  Under  the  present  system 
of  competition  in  foreign  markets,  as  at  home,  each  manu- 
facturer can  be  represented  only  by  such  agents  as  he 
can  afford  to  pay,  and  these  are  frequently  not  comparable 
with  the  representatives  of  foreign  trade  combinations.  If 
manufacturers  would  unite  for  joint  representation  in  a 
foreign  country,  agents  of  high  standing  and  great  ability 
would  be  available  and,  as  representatives  of  the  whole 
British  trade,  they  could  be  supported  and  introduced  by 
the  Consular  and,  when  necessary,  even  by  the  Diplomatic 
Service.  Here,  too,  is  a  vast  field  of  educational  work  for 
schools  and  colleges  in  the  training  of  commercial  represen- 
tatives of  British  trades — men  whose  training  will  not  have 
been  confined  to  shorthand  and  book-keeping,  office  routine 
and  a  modern  language,  but  men  who  will  have  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  country  or  countries  to  which  they  will 
be  sent  and  also  of  the  goods  they  have  to  sell,  including 
such  a  knowledge  of  their  manufacture  as  will  enable  them 
to  discuss  modifications  in  detail  to  meet  the  requirements 
of   foreign   customers. 


.     ;  CHAPTER    VIO 

The  State  and  Labour 

By    professor    S.    J.    CHAPMAN 

The  problem  of  the  State  in  relation  to  labour  raises  two 
questions  :  the  one,  What  should  be  aimed  at  in  labour 
arrangements  ?  and  the  other,  liow  far  is  the  State  the  best 
engine,  or  even  an  efficient  engine  at  all,  for  bringing  about 
the  desired  end  ?  Both  of  these  questions  would  be  difficult 
to  answer  in  normal  times,  foir  a  community  like  the  English 
in  which  springs  of  action  that  might  be  ignored  in  a 
simpler  social  system  have  developed  into  important 
economic  forces  ;  and  they  are  much  more  difficult  to 
answer  to-day.  But  immediate  attention  to  them  is  called 
for,  since  economic  organization  after  the  war  will  be  in 
a  more  or  less  chaotic  condition,  and  at  the  same  time 
in  an  unusually  malleable  condition,  and  chance  is  seldom  a 
perfect  architect.  As  in  human  affairs,  however,  an  end 
only  becomes  precisely  defined  when  it  is  on  the  verge  of 
being  realized,  we  cannot  hope  to  frame  more  than  a  rough 
idea  of  the  State's  future  duties  with  reference  to  labour. 
And  before  attempting  to  frame  even  a  rough  idea,  it  will 
obviously  be  needful  to  grasp  the  tendencies  that  were  ruling 
antecedent  to  hostilities. 

Looking  at  the  labour  world  in  the  broadest  possible  way, 
three  movements  proceeding  from  three  different  sources 
appear  to  stand  out.  One,  which  began  as  a  vague  demand 
for  greater  productive  efficiency,  had  already  created  some 
stir  in  capitalistic  circles,  and  was  developing  a  definite 
programme  for  securing  what  was  called  "  Scientific 
Management."  Another  (constituted  of  several  movements 
that  were  assimilating),  with  only  partially  formulated 
ideas,  was  pressing  the  claims  of  labour  for  an  improved 
status  in  reference  to  production,  greater  security  of  income 


138  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

and  position,  higher  wages,  and,  generally,  a  scheme  of 
remuneration  which  would  make  wages  more  like  a  partner's 
share  in  the  product  of  an  industry  and  less  like  a  com- 
modity's price.  With  a  part  of  this  mixed  movement,  a 
state  of  purposeless  fermentation  and  local  discontent  with 
trade  union  organization  and  policy  were  associated.  The 
term  "  Syndicalism  "  is  sometimes  applied  to  this  element 
in  the  labour  movement,  though  its  affinities  with  the  con- 
crete syndicalism  of  the  Continent  are  not  pronounced.  The 
third  group  of  tendencies  marked  a  growing  interest  on  the 
part  of  the  nation  in  the  conditions  of  life  and  physical  and 
mental  well-being,  intermingled  with  concern  for  the  future 
of  the  race.  From  this  arose  housing  reform,  schemes  for 
equalizing  opportunities,  the  minimum  wage  demand,  and 
eugenics. 

The  three  complex  social  currents  distinguished  above 
cut  across  one  another  to  some  extent.  But  the  first  was 
primarily  capitalistic  in  its  origin,  though,  liberally  regarded, 
its  end  was  a  national  one  ;  the  second  was  peculiarly  labour 
in  its  initiation  ;  and  the  third,  national  or  State,  though 
portions  of  it  could  be  equally  attributed  to  labour.  Thus 
social  betterment  relating  to  housing  and  the  conditions  of 
life  has  received  weighty  labour  support,  but  labour 
organizations  have  not  shown  themselves  disposed  to  spend 
lavishly  upon  it  either  in  money  or  effort.  Again,  the 
Poor  Law  reform  agitation,  or  attempted  agitation,  confirms 
the  conclusion  drawn  above.  Its  promoters  were  largely 
middle -class  and  its  propaganda  ended  generally  in  a  limited 
or  tepid  following,  though  labour  sympathy  was  not  lacking. 
The  truth  is  that  it  did  not  happen  to  be  in  touch  with  any 
nucleus  of  the  distinctive  labour  movement.  yVnother 
example  may  be  drawn  from  education.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  hopeful  signs  of  the  times  that  there  is  no  class  without 
its  coterie  of  educational  enthusiasts,  but  there  are  striking 
differences  in  point  of  view  and  relative  emphasis  as  between 
class  and  class.  Industrial  leaders  incline  to  rely  too  much 
on  the  efficiency  test,  and  to  encourage  only  the  technical 
and  commercial  education  which  makes  expert  producing 
machines — excellent  things  in  themselves,  but  by  no  means 
all  that  education  stands  for.  The  social  reformer's  ideal 
of  an  education  which  discovers  talent,  and  by  developing  it 
makes  the  best  men  and  women  and  gives  opportunities  to 
the  poorer  classes,  has  seldom  won  more  than  a  mere  intel- 
lectual acceptance  in  capitalistic  quarters.     To  the  employer, 


THE    STATE    AND    LABOUR  139 

broadly  speaking,  it  seems  to  be  only  remotely  "  business," 
and,  so  far  as  it  is,  to  conduce  to  severer  competition,  which 
he  cannot  be  expected  to  encourage.  And  in  labour  circles, 
this  conception  of  one  of  the  functions  of  education  has 
received  neither  the  first  blessing  nor  imqualified  and  unsus- 
picious support.  Indeed,  the  elementary  step  of  raising  the 
school  age  has  divided  the  labour  world  ;  and  there  are 
those  who  fear  lest  the  policy  of  giving  special  opportunities 
to  picked  individuals  should  weaken  the  cohesion  of  labour. 
The  insistence,  in  the  popular  movement  for  the  higher 
education  of  workpeople,  on  the  principle  that  the  work- 
people when  educated  should  remain  workpeople — which  has 
its  good  side,  it  must  be  allowed,  in  repudiating  the  mere 
bread-and-butter  notion  of  education — is  significant. 

All  this,  of  course,  is  to  view  things  in  the  mass  and  not 
draw  fine  distinctions  ;  but  viewing  things  in  this  way,  we 
would  certainly  seem  to  be  warranted  in  representing  the 
movements  affecting  labour  prior  to  the  war  as  working 
from  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle,  as  it  were,  so  that, 
when  not  exactly  opposed,  they  were  competing  rather  than 
co-operating.  Given  understanding  among  our  official  and 
unofficial  leaders,  and  the  avoidance  of  precipitancy,  one 
effect  of  the  war  may  be  to  resolve  this  triangular  system 
of  forces  into  parallelograms  of  forces.  But,  before  this 
is  argued,  something  must  be  said  of  State  action  along  the 
old  lines. 

We  may  agree  at  once  that,  apart  from  financial  con- 
siderations, nothing  has  occurred  to  justify  the  curtailment 
of  the  national  labour  or  betterment  movement,  while  much 
has  occurred  to  impel  it  forward  in  certain  directions.  It  is 
true  that  we  should  have  learnt  to  be  less  apprehensive 
about  the  physical  and  moral  strength  of  the  race,  but  at 
the  same  time  we  must  be  realizing  more  fully  its  extreme 
importance.  The  minimum  wage  policy  may  have  to  be 
carried  farther.  Again,  during  the  demobilization  of  the 
Army  and  the  remobilization  of  industry,  employment  ex- 
changes will  have  to  work  as  they  have  never  done  before  ; 
and,  if  the  economic  system  can  retain  some  of  its  recently 
acquired  plasticity,  the  function  of  these  institutions  will  be 
permanently  magnified.  In  many  other  directions  also,  more 
will  be  required  of  the  State.  One  question  in  particular 
will  stand  out  for  consideration  de  novo,  namely  the  ques- 
tion of  the  industrial  position  of  women.  This  raises  issues 
that  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  section,  but  we  must  notice 


140  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

here  that  a  minuter  scrutiny  of  the  conditions  under  which 
women  may  be  safely  employed  will  have  to  be  under- 
taken. The  industrial  activities  of  Iwomen  may_,  ajid  probably 
will,  continue  on  a  larger  scale  than  heretofore  ;  and,  if  so, 
it  will  be  more  than  ever  pressing  to  consider  how  to  avoid 
their  undue  strain.  Between  no  industrial  work  and  indus- 
trial work  of  an  arduousness  and  daily  duration  that  a  man 
can  stand  without  undue  strain,  but  not  the  average  woman, 
there  are  numerous  intermediate  positions.  It  ought  not  to 
be  beyond  the  powers  of  organization  to  fit  in  the  employ- 
ment of  women,  under  conditions  suited  to  their  powers, 
with  the  employment  of  men  under  different  and  less 
restricted  conditions.  The  open-minded  must  have  been 
convinced  by  now  that  the  disposal  of  this  Gordian  knot  by 
the  slashing  system  of  far-reaching  prohibition  is  probably 
the  course  most  to  be  avoided.  Lengthy  comment  on  the 
work  of  the  State  in  spheres  already  approved  cannot  jiow 
be  attempted,  but  we  must  not  omit  to  observe  further  that 
for  all  time  the  value  of  its  social  action  will  probably 
remain  greatest  where  it  now  does  most.  Education  with  a 
human  and  national  end  in  view,  and  the  furnishing  of 
opportunities  in  other  ways  (among  which  offering  a  future 
to  the  enterprising  on  the  land  may  be  more  urgently 
demanded  and  needed  after  the  war),  make  the  men  which 
make  the  State  and  lay  the  foundations  of  our  well-being. 

We  may  conclude  that  more  and  not  less  will  be  required 
of  the  State  on  the  old  lines — even  though  more  economy 
and  less  comfort  may  have  to  be  aimed  at  for  a  time — 
particularly  in  view  of  the  probability  that  the  national 
attitude  which  the  war  has  induced  in  the  mass  of  the  popu- 
lation will  survive  sufficiently  to  bring  to  social  reform  on 
the  old  lines  a  great  accession  of  popular  support.  But  the 
disturbing  thought  confronts  us  that  financial  stringency 
and  a  smaller  national  income  may  limit  the  Government's 
capacity  to  do  all  that  should  be  done.  Will  there  be 
obstacles  in  restricted  means,  and  can  they  be  minimized  ? 
This  question  leads  directly  to  the  considerations  to  be 
developed  next. 

Our  analysis  of  pre-war  conditions  brought  out  three  non- 
co-oj>erating,  and  in  part  conflicting,  groups  of  tendencies, 
and  our  immediate  concern  now  is  exclusively  with  the 
bearing  of  State  action  upon  two  of  them.  Up  to  the 
time  of  the  war,  the  State  had  interested  itself  mainly  in 
what  wc  have  called  the  national  group,  except  to  interpose 


THE    STATE     AND    LABOUR  141 

occasionally  in  other  matters  in  an  indirect  or  advisory  way 
as  public  interest  seemed  to  dictate.  But  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  lines  of  projection  of  these  three 
groups  of  movements  will  be  deflected  and  attracted  to  one 
another  by  the  war.  For  example,  the  interest  of  the  State 
is  likely  to  be  drawn  to  the  question  of  labour  efficiency, 
both  because  of  the  enormous  problems  of  finance  that  the 
war  will  leave  as  a  legacy  and  because  the  State's  economic 
policy,  apart  from  finance,  must  have  a  productive  side. 
The  nation's  revenue  will  become  a  matter  of  the  deepest 
concern  ;  upon  it  the  future  of  the  social  reform  that  has 
already  been  started  will  depend  ;  and  what  the  revenue  can 
be  is  largely  determined  by  what  the  nation's  income  is. 
Again,  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  Government  will 
entirely  ignore  the  productive  problems  involved  in  the 
maintenance  oT  key  industries  and  fundamental  industries, 
and  other  problems  that  may  be  raised  when  it  is  sought 
to  cement  our  political  alliances  on  the  economic  plane. 
Foreign  competition  in  over-sea  markets,  if  nothing  else,  will 
inevitably  bring  the  State  to  the  capitalistic  angle  of  vision 
with  regard  to  producing  costs.  But  this  attraction  will  not 
mean  a  surrender  of  the  State's  constitutional  point  of  view  ; 
when  it  assumes  the  organizer's  interest  it  cannot  and  will  not 
discard  its  national  bias.  In  short,  its  productive  policy  is 
bound  to  become  inherently  a  social  policy.  Moreover,  in 
entering  as  an  interested  party  into  the  problem  of  produc- 
tion, the  State,  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it  stands  for  all 
classes,  will  be  naturally  involved  on  the  labour  side  ;  and 
only  in  so  far  as  it  can  reconcile  its  productive  objects  with 
labour  claims  will  it  be  able  to  maintain  a  productive  poUcy. 
It  is,  therefore,  conceivable  that  the  angles  dividing  the 
three  groups  of  tendencies  already  defined  may  be  so 
reduced  that  the  tendencies  will  become  co-op)erating  ones. 
And  this  is  possible  for  another  reason  also.  The  aims  of 
the  different  groups  of  labour  may  become  less  sectional, 
because  something  of  the  war's  public  point  of  view  may 
survive,  and  the  labour  movement  will  acquire  the  habit  of 
the  national  outlook  if  it  identifies  itself  more  with  what 
we  have  called  the  national  social  movement. 

The  wish  is  strong  enough  to  be  father  to  the  thought, 
but  there  is  nothing  inherently  improbable  in  the  thought. 
Scientific  management  could  be  advocated  to  promote  the 
interests  of  labour,  only  in  that  case  more  weight  would 
have  to  be  attached'  to  ultimate  effects  and'  to  the  subjective 


142  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

side  of  human  activities.  Opposition  to  scientific  manage- 
ment has  been  aroused  by  its  too  exclusive  reference  to 
the  magnitude  of  the  output  ;  and  doubtless  it  has  been  a 
fault  in  the  labour  point  of  view  to  ignore  or  treat  as 
negligible  the  magnitude  of  the  output.  It  does  not  follow 
that  as  more  is  produced  more  goes  to  labour,  but  it  may 
be  arranged  for  more  to  go  to  labour  ;  and  with  this 
arranged — which  means  the  concession  of  no  small  part  of 
the  labour  demands — scientific  management,  liberally  inter- 
preted, would  become  a  corollary  of  the  contention  of  labour, 
provided  that  the  security  of  the  workman's  income  was 
not  sacrificed,  or  diminished  in  any  way,  without  a  quid  pro 
quo.  The  question  of  this  security  is  one  source  of  existing 
conflict.  The  workman  is  fighting  for  more  security  ;  and 
the  regulations  of  his  trade  union  are  to  some  extent 
designed  to  ensure  it,  by  checking  the  substitution  of  un- 
skilled for  skilled  labour,  for  instance,  and  by  making  the 
demand  for  skilled  work  rigid,  despite  mechanical  improve- 
ments, as  in  the  case  of  rules  relating  to  the  ratio  |of 
machines  to  operatives.  But  "  scientific  management  " 
assumes  the  levelling  or  lowering  of  these  protective  barriers. 
It  has  yet  to  discover  how  to  recommend  itself  to  labour 
interests :  that  a  way  can  be  found  by  pruning  and  modifying 
the  crude  capitalistic  conception  of  scientific  management, 
without  sacrificing  its  essentials,  will  be  maintained  later. 
Similarly,  the  labour  demand  may  be  reduced  in  substance 
to  the  capitalistic,  for  what  fosters  the  motive  powers  of 
production  must  tend  to  magnify  the  output.  Men  work 
better  when  their  future  is  assured  than  when  they  are 
beset  with  constant  anxieties.  Their  work  is  also  superior 
when  their  status  in  their  firm  or  industry  is  such  that  they 
identify  themselves  with  it,  and  when  they  not  only  share  in 
its  prosperity,  but  directly  feel  themselves  sharing  in  it, 
because  of  the  system  by  which  their  wages  are  regulated. 
Private  incentives  have  hitherto  been  too  exclusively  ex- 
ploited in  production  :  it  has  yet  to  be  realized  that  social 
motives  can  be  cultivated  for  economic  ends  and  harnessed 
to  production.  These  considerations  are  purposely  expressed 
vaguely  to  keep  their  application  general,  and  for  the  further 
and  sufficient  reason  that  what  is  ultimately  advisable,  in  the 
matter  of  the  operative's  status  and  the  regulation  of  his 
wages,  must  vary  from  industry  to  industry,  and  has  yet  to 
be  enunciated  in  precise  terms  after  discussion  in  contact 
with  the  relevant  facts. 


THE    STATE     AND    LABOUR  143 

In  connection  with  the  conceivable  reconcihation  of  the 
demands  of  capital  and  labour,  there  is  a  point  to  refer  to 
that  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  our  present  inquiries. 
It  is  that  the  accommodations  needed  for  their  harmony  are 
impeded  or  stopped  by  the  crystallization  of  the  productive 
system  in  regnlations  and  customs,  which  are,  after  all,  only 
means  to  an  end.  The  relations  between  employers  and 
workmen  had  set  so  stiffly  prior  to  the  war  that  employers 
tended  to  assume  them  in  their  mental  speculations  without 
realizing  that  they  were  beg'ging  any  questions  at  issue. 
Works  organization  had  gone  so  long  by  rule  that  only  the 
most  imaginative  could  struggle  out  of  the  accustomed 
grooves.  Similarly  the  arrangements  made  in  the  interests 
of  the  workpeople,  maybe  after  severe  conflict,  had  almost 
acquired  the  sanctity  of  "  rights  "  defining  the  operatives* 
property  in  the  trade.  Their  observance  to  the  letter  was 
frequently  expected,  however  obsolete  and  unsuited  to  new 
conditions  they  might  be  ;  and  even  when  workpeople  took 
a  broader  view,  they  were  afraid  to  admit  a  breach  lest  all 
existing  defences  might  go  and  nothing  take  their  place. 
Few  conceived  of  the  possibility  of  getting  better  results 
eventually  as  a  result  of  modification.  All  this  will  come 
out  of  the  furnace  of  war  vastly  changed.  Many  an  emj- 
ployer  has  had  to  suffer  some  control  and  to  abide  by  terms 
of  employment  and  wages  to  which  he  would  not  have  con- 
sented as  a  free  agent  ;  and  the  working'  classes  'have 
already  had  some  experience  of  working  without  the  rules 
and  regulations  by  which  their  interests  were,  or  were  sup- 
posed to  be,  safeguarded.  To  the  widespread  consent  to  the 
temporary  abeyances  of  these  provisions  which  the  majority 
of  the  working  classes  patriotically  but  apprehensively 
yielded,  the  success  of  the  country  has  been  largely  due. 

Now,  in  order  that  there  may  be  no  excuse  for  misunder- 
standing, let  the  obvious  thing  be  said  at  once,  namely  that 
all  the  undertakings  entered  into  to  restore  these  restrictions 
must  be  met  fully  and  absolutely,  without  covert  curtail- 
ment, and  in  the  most  liberal  spirit  whenever  the  demand 
for  their  restoration  is  made.  The  State  could  not 
countenance,  and  no  patriot  could  suggest  for  a  moment, 
repudiation,  however  trifling,  or  even  suspicion  of  repudia- 
tion, of  the  contracts  that  were  made  or  implied.  This 
is  obvious  ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  departure  from  rule  for 
the  duration  of  the  war  brings  a  new  hope  of  social 
and   industrial   progress   in   the  near  future.      For,    though 


144  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

it  is  the  workpeople's  undoubted  right  to  have  reimposed 
the  old  trade  union  safeguards,  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  they  will  universally  desire  their  restoration  or  con- 
tinuance in  their  old  form.  They  will  not  if  it  is 
demonstrably  not  in  their  interests  ;  and  there  must  be 
numerous  cases  in  which  it  will  not  be,  and  numerous 
other  cases  in  which  greater  advantages  could  be  ofTered 
alternatively. 

In  this  connection,  there  are  three  points  to  bear  in  mind. 
In  the  first  place,  experiments  have  been  tried  which  labour 
would  otherwise  have  been  afraid  of  risking,  and  there  are 
said  to  be  instances  in  which  an  all-round  benefit  would  have 
resulted  in  any  circumstances.  In  the  second  place,  the 
world  will  be  very  different  after  the  war.  The  supply  of 
adult  males  will  have  been  reduced  by  casualties  ;  and  it 
seems  highly  probable  that  numbers  will  emigrate  to  the 
Colonies  who  would  not  otherwise  have  done  so.  After  the 
kind  of  life  lived  in  camp  many  will  be  attracted  to  colonial 
conditions,  with  which  they  will  have  come  in  contact  in- 
directly through  their  association  with  colonials.  Moreover, 
the  colonial  demand  for  labour  will  be  more  urgent  than  the 
Mother  Country's,  seeing  that  the  scantier  a  population  the 
more  severely  is  a  given  percentage  loss  of  people  felt.  In 
many  industries,  therefore,  we  should  be  prepared  to  discover 
without  surprise  that  the  displacement  of  the  emergency 
labour  to  any  large  extent  would  act  detrimentally  on  the 
employment  and  earning  both  of  the  men  returning  and  of 
those  whose  labour  has  been  diluted  ;  and  in  any  event,  it 
is  unlikely  that  the  arrangements  best  for  the  operatives 
under  the  old  conditions  will  remain  best  under  the  new. 
In  the  third  place  it  may  be  found  that,  though  a  small 
section  of  labour  would  gain  from  the  restoration  of 
certain  rules,  other  sections  would  so  lose  that  there  would 
be  a  substantial  balance  of  loss.  In  these  cases,  as  experi- 
ments have  been  started  and  there  is  a  good  chance  that 
people  will  be  in  the  mood  to  try  new  schemes,  it  would  be 
worth  while  considering  whether  some  compensation  for  the 
labour  in  question  could  not  be  so  devised  that  everybody 
would  be  left  a  gainer.  Given  a  minimum  of  obstacles  to 
improved  organization,  greater  productivity  might  soon  make 
up  for  the  material  losses  of  all  classes  due  to  the  war.  On 
all  hands  one  hears  that  a  larger  output  per  head  is  pos- 
sible, even  without  an  increase  of  effort.  As  path -breaking 
is  already  far  advanced,  th<2re  is  no  initial  inertia  to  over- 


THE    STATE     AND    LABOUR  145 

come  ;  and  it  is  certain  that,  after  what  has  occurred,  in- 
dustrial organizers  will  be  prepared  to  contemplate  arrange- 
ments with  the  operatives,  the  mere  thought  of  which  in 
ordinary  times  would  have  caused  them  profound  uneasiness. 
It  looks  as  if  the  post-bellum  period  would  offer  a  great 
opportunity  to  the  wage -earning  classes  ;  and  being  in  the 
strong  position  of  having  something  to  bargain  with,  they 
can  speculate  without  any  appreciable  risk. 

But  the  situation  will  not  be  an  easy  one  to  deal  with. 
The  old  paths  of  peace  will  be  no  longer  where  they  were  ; 
nor  will  they  be  immediately  attainable.  There  will  be  a 
jungle  of  difficulties  to  get  through  first,  and  antecedent  to 
this  the  demobilization  of  the  Army  and  remobilization  of 
industry.  A  few  words  must  be  said  of  what  confronts  us, 
for  what  exactly  should  be  done  in  connection  with  the 
labour  question  is  closely  dependent  on  what  may  be  ex- 
pected as  regards  the  state  of  trade  and  supplies  of  labour  on 
the  termination  of  hostilities.  Four  periods,  which  succes- 
sively overlap,  may  be  distinguished  in  events  after  the  war  : 
first,  the  demobilization  and  transition  period  ;  secondly,  the 
period  of  recovery  from  the  destruction  and  deferment  of 
production  and  consumption  occasioned  by  the  war  ;  thirdly, 
the  period  of  reaction,  if  any  ;  and,  fourthly,  the  Jong- 
drawn-out  period  of  new  normal  conditions.  Much  depends 
upon  the  spaces  of  time  filled  by  the  first  three  periods, 
which  will  not  be  the  same  in  all  industries,  though  at  certain 
points  a  general  state  of  depression  or  briskness  might  be 
induced  by  the  synchronizing  of  a  number  of  large  in- 
fluences ;  and  equally,  as  regards  the  character  of  the 
periods,  much  depends  upon  the  rapidity  with  which  suitable 
re -accommodations  of  productive  forces  can  be  effected. 

Now  it  is  vital  to  the  country's  economic  future  that, 
when  demobilization  is  taking  place  and  we  are  equipping 
and  reorganizing  ourselves  to  meet  civilian  requirements 
more  fully  again,  no  unnecessary  impediments  should  be 
allowed  to  hamper  our  movements.  The  task  of  immediate 
reconstruction  will  be  sufficiently  complex  and  onerous  to 
tax  our  powers  to  the  utmost,  and  in  connection  with  it  the 
gravest  financial  and  other  questions  may  arise.  Moreover, 
our  future  will  largely  depend  upon  our  quickness.  The 
neutral  competitor  will  have  had  a  start  and  will  have  to 
be  caught  up.  And  pretty  much  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  second  period  when  the  destruction  wrought  by  war  is 
being   repaired.      Every  day   wasted   during  the   course  of 

10 


146  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

restoration  work  means  another  loss  on  the  top  of  the  heavy 
losses  still  to  be  made  good.  Probably  throughout  this  time 
we  shall  feel  a  pressure  of  demand  for  labour  not  unlike  the 
war  demand.  The  question,  then,  as  to  the  time  when  settle- 
ment of  the  labour  problem  can  be  most  appropriately 
sought  is  one  of  the  deepest  concern  ;  and  of  no  little 
importance  is  the  allied  question  as  to  the  method  of  settle- 
ment, assuming  it  to  be  agreed  among  the  operatives  that 
negotiations  with  a  view  to  new  arrangements  promise  the 
brightest  future. 

This  second  question  brings  up  for  consideration  the 
functions  of  the  State.  It  has  been  argued  previously  that 
the  State  will  have  been  rendered  an  interested  party  in  the 
labour  problem  in  a  much  fuller  sense  than  it  was  before 
the  war.  But  State  domination  is  neither  necessary  nor 
desirable,  nor  even  possible.  The  Prussianizing  of  indus- 
trial functioning  would  prove  disastrous  if  it  could  be  carried 
out  in  England,  and  it  could  not.  It  would  be  galling  to 
the  Englishman  and  destructive  of  the  spirit  that  has  made 
for  our  industrial  greatness.  Co^mpulsion  will  be  largely 
out  of  place  ;  but  Government  will  have  to  be  entrusted 
with  an  extraordinarily  responsible  and  difficult  office.  It 
will  probably  be  incumbent  on  the  State  to  organize, 
maintain  and  guide  the  multitudinous  negotiations  through 
which  alone  satisfactory  solutions  can  be  reached  ;  and 
it  alone  can  bring  uniformity  into  any  emergency  arrange- 
ments, and  keep  the  numerous  discussions  that  must 
take  place  in  touch  with  each  other,  so  that  the  several 
agreements  arrived  at  may  give  promise  of  enduring 
by  fitting  into  an  harmonious  whole.  Men  of  the 
diplomatic  order,  and  others  with  the  right  insight  and 
knowledge,  will  be  the  chief  requirements  ;  for  if  the  oppor- 
tunities of  the  future  are  here  read  aright,  difficult  as  is  the 
task  of  the  industrial  conciliator  ordinarily,  the  new  tasks 
will  be  far  more  difficult,  seeing  that  the  range  of  debatable 
subjects  will  be  far  wider.  Moreover,  the  task  will  be  the 
harder  so  far  as  it  is  agreed  by  labour  and  capital  that  the 
economic  system,  which  has  been  forced  by  the  strain  of 
war  to  make  itself  plastic,  should  be  prevented  from  harden- 
ing again  into  rigid  forms,  if  possible.  Its  habit  has  hitherto 
been  that  of  the  lobster — to  grow  a  shell,  discard  it  when 
it  becomes  unbearably  tight  and  then  grow  another.  The 
ideal  to  aim  at  is  continuous  plasticity  under  working  agree- 
ments which   can  be   modified  as  need  arises,   seeing  that 


THE    STATE     AND    LABOUR  147 

schemes  suited  to  all  the  features  of  an   unforeseen  future 
cannot  possibly  be  devised. 

This  sketch,  fugitive  though  it  is,  of  the  State's  hand  in 
the  remoulding  of  the  productive  system,  will  be  sufficient 
to  indicate  that  for  the  final  settlement  of  human  industrial 
relationships,  in  a  way  that  is  acceptable  to  all  parties  con- 
cerned, a  somewhat  lengthy  period  will  be  required.  It 
would,  therefore,  seem  essential  to  enter  into  provisional 
agreements,  without  prejudice  to  the  form  of  the  final  settle- 
ment, to  enable  industry  to  carry  on  meanwhile.  This 
is  the  more  necessary  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  war  will 
have  so  changed  our  markets  and  needs  that  all  relevant 
facts  will  not  be  known  till  some  time  after  the  termination 
of  hostilities.  A  hurried  design,  sketched  when  the  future 
of  demand  was  unknown  and  the  available  supplies  of  capital 
and  labour  were  unknown — for  who  can  say  what  emigration 
will  be  or  how  many  women  will  desire  to  remain  wage- 
earning  ? — could  never  fit  the  circumstances  and  would 
probably  lead  to  regrettable  reactions. 

Consequently  we  may  assume  the  need  of  provisional 
arrangements.  In  the  framing  of  these  a  State  department 
will  undoubtedly  have  to  take  a  prominent  part,  for  reasons 
similar  to  those  urged  with  reference  to  ultimate  arrange- 
ments. Again,  for  the  sake  of  insuring  immediate  response 
to  sudden  post-war  needs,  these  arrangements  will  have  to 
be  made  without  delay.  One  awkward  factor  to  allow  for 
will  be  price  variations.  Prices  will  be  affected  almost  at 
once,  and  they  have  a  bearing  both  on  the  purchasing -power 
of  wages  and  the  money  wages  that  can  be  paid.  The 
question  of  wages,  in  view  of  price  variations,  will  probably 
be  the  most  troublesome,  and  as  prices  will  not  keep  constant 
after  once  changing  the  disturbance  will  continue.  To 
meet  this  difficulty,  some  simple  plan,  to  be  acted  upon 
unless  there  were  obvious  reasons  to  the  contrary,  might 
be  devised  and  accepted  ;  and  a  simple  uniform  plan  would 
have  the  merit  of  preventing  jealousy  as  between  one  class 
of  labour  and  another  with  reference  to  earnings.  The 
obvious  course  is  to  provide  for  some  slide  of  wages  with 
an  agreed  index  of  prices  for  a  period.  But  there  remains 
the  question  of  the  starting  wage.  In  view  of  the  need  of 
haste,  one  or  two  alternative  pivots  for  wages  might  be 
selected  for  the  least  exceptional  cases.  Something  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  present  wage  would  probably  be  the 
most  acceptable  pivot,  and  another  possible  one  is  the  pre- 


148  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

war  wage  raised  by  an  agreed  percentage  based  on  the  rise 
in  the  cost  of  living.  In  special  cases  a  new  basis  might 
have  to  be  adopted.  But  whatever  the  starting  amount,  if 
prices  declined  at  the  rate  that  seems  likely  there  would 
have  to  be  some  corresponding  descent  in  money  wages. 

As  regards  emergency  action,  the  vital  thing  is  to  avoid 
delay  and  cessation  of  work.  More  depends  upon  this 
than  many  may  realize  in  the  first  few  months  of  peace. 
And  with  reference  to  permanent  resettlement,  it  is  essential 
to  avoid  haste  and  discard  prejudice.  A  great  opportunity 
that  may  never  recur  is  before  us  of  so  harmonizing  conflict- 
ing interests  that  class  antagonism  is  transformed  into  a  class 
alliance  to  make  good  the  war  losses  that  can  be  repaired, 
and  continue  unchecked  along  the  path  leading  to  greater 
prosperity. 


CHAPTER    IX  I 

The  Relations   between  Capital  and 
Labour 

/.     THE   STANDPOINT  OF  LABOUR 

By  G.  H.    ROBERTS,  M.P. 

When  the  hideous  calamities  of  war  have  passed  and 
peace  reigns  again,  the  varied  and  complex  group  of 
questions  constituting  the  Labour  problem  will  become 
more  insistent  than  ever.  In  pre-war  days  employers  and 
employed  were  drifting  rapidly  into  a  state  of  mutual 
suspicion  and  ill-concealed  antagonism.  Then  the  pro- 
testations of  friendliness  on  the  part  of  Germany  had 
lulled  the  nation  into  a  sense  of  false  security.  When  in 
August  1914  the  naked  evil  stood  revealed  to  all  who 
could  and  would  see,  all  classes  cast  aside  the  differences 
which  had  hitherto  separated  them,  and  a  united  people 
sprang  to  agreement  and  determination  to  defeat  the  foe 
whose  aggressive  purposes  and  moral  turpitude  had  let 
loose  the  hell-hounds  of  death  and  destruction. 

With  the  exception  of  slight  and  occasional  ripplings 
of  discord  this  splendid  unity  has  survived,  and  made 
easier  the  task  of  adjusting  national  resources  to  the  pursuit 
and  attainment  of  victory.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  disaster 
would  have  inevitably  ensued  and  the  horrors  of  war  have 
been  bitterly  aggravated.  What  a  towfer  of  strength  was 
dedicated  to  the  State  in  Labour's  spontaneous  outburst 
of  patriotism  and  ready  willingness  to  serve  1  Millions 
of  men  laid  on  the  national  altar  the  proceeds  of  genera- 
tions of  strivings  and  sacrifices,  making  but  the  simple  and 
justifiable  reservation  that  the  things  thus  rendered  to  their 
country  should  be  restored  unimpaired  to  them  when  danger 

had  passed^   for  these  were  the   means  they  had  fashioned 

J  49 


I50  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

at  tremendous  cost  and  trouble  with  which  to  win  better- 
ment for  themselves  and  theirs.  Without  internal  unity 
the  prosecution  of  the  war  would  have  been  hampered  and 
hindered,  and  more  brave  men  would  have  died  and  more 
treasure  been  expended.  Heavy  indeed  are  our  losses 
under  both  heads,  yet  it  is  good  to  know  that  in  days  to 
come  the  conscience  of  Labour  will  be  free  of  blood- 
guiltiness,  inasmuch  as  its  conduct  did  not  add  to  those 
losses.  None,  therefore,  will  deny  that  national  cohesion 
has  proved  incalculably  advantageous  during  the  war. 

Equally,  I  submit,  will  it  be  desirable  in  the  period 
ensuing  on  the  establishment  of  peace.  The  absence  of 
industrial  conflict  will  facilitate  the  readjustment  of  busi- 
nesses from  war  to  civil  standards,  and  the  measures  of 
reconstruction  and  development  necessary  for  a  speedy 
recovery  and  future  safety  and  prosperity.  Some  predict 
that  cruel  and  widespread  class  warfare  will  be  precipitated 
when  cannons  cease  to  vomit  and  trenches  are  emptieid. 
Surely  every  good  citizen  will  be  anxious  to  avert  this 
dread  possibility.  Having  seen  the  son  of  the  well-to-do 
and  the  son  of  the  labourer  watching  and  fighting  together 
in  order  that  their  country  may  remain  great  and  its  people 
free,  I  cannot  think  they  will  soon  forget  the  comradeship 
that  inspired  them  to  common  endeavour  and  sacrifice  in 
withstanding  the  foe,  nor  that  they  will  sanction  lightly 
the  resumption  of  industrial  hostilities,  but  will  elect  to 
resort  to  the  arbitrament  of  reason  and  justice.  The 
supreme  social  service  that  could  be  rendered  would  be 
for  parties  and  classes  to  sustain  the  closer  co-operation 
which  prevails  during  the  war  in  the  trying  days  of  early 
peace.  I  am  told  this  is  too  much  to  hope  for.  Assuredly, 
however,  most  will  desire  that  the  better  spirit  should 
survive,  and  will  do  their  utmost  to  foster  it. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the  concessions  made 
by  Trade  Unions  are  for  the  period  of  the  war  only.  They 
would  not  have  been  conceded  to  private  interests,  but  have 
been  yielded  willingly  to  uphold  the  integrity  of  the  State, 
on  the  clear  understanding  that  they  are  part  of  Labour's 
contribution  towards  the  attainment  of  victory,  and  are  to 
be  restored  in  their  entirety  when  that  purpose  is  achieved. 
This  constitutes  a  contract  between  the  State  and  the  Trade 
Unions,  the  terms  of  which  are  implemented  in  the 
Munitions  of  War  Act.  This  Act  provides  for  the  com- 
plete restoration  after  the  war  of  any  change   effected  in 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  151 

Trade  Union  rules,  regulations,  and  customs  under  this 
contract.  That  this  undertaking  will  be  honoured  is  not 
seriously  questioned.  Maybe  some  friction  will  occur,  but 
if  the  workers  stand  firm  to  their  respective  organiza- 
tions they  will,  with  the  support  of  Parliament,  revert 
approximately  to  the  conditions  prevalent  at  the  outbreak 
of  war. 

Nevertheless,  experiences  gained  through  changes  made 
during  the  war  will  not  be  effaced.  The  extensive  admis- 
sion of  semi-skilled  and  female  labour  into  regions  hitherto 
the  exclusive  preserve  of  skilled  artisans  will  have  shown 
employers  that  processes  once  confined  to  highly  skilled 
workers  can  be  performed  by  less  skilled.  So  it  may  be 
expected  that  the  status  of  classes  of  labour  will  be 
readjusted  in  the  light  of  this  experience.  But  no 
such  change  must  be  made  arbitrarily.  Any  endeavour 
to  depreciate  pre-war  conditions  will  provoke  trouble. 
Unless  this  aspect  of  the  matter  is  handled  with  care 
and  sympathy,  irritation  and  probably  strikes  will  ensue. 
An  ugly  spirit  will  be  engendered  if  employers  give 
cause  for  the  belief  that  they  seek  to  exploit  for  indi- 
vidual ends  the  magnificent  patriotism  of  the  working 
classes.  Terrible  will  be  the  anger  of  those  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  trade  unionists  who  have  been  among  the  most 
valiant  defenders  of  the  Allied  cause  if  they  return  to 
find  that  while  fighting  to  keep  intact  their  country  their 
industrial  rights  and  privileges  have  been  filched.  There- 
fore it  is  imperative  that  the  restitution  of  Trade  Union 
concessions  be  as  honourably  effected  as  they  were  readily 
surrendered.  Given  this,  any  changes  experience  has  proved 
desirable  to  make  permanent  may  be  negotiated  without 
prejudice  in  an  atmosphere  of  mutual  goodwill. 

No  thoughtful  person  maintains  that  methods  shall  be 
stereotyped  for  all  time.  Finality  in  the  means  of  wealth 
production  should  never  be  contemplated.  Persistent  ex- 
periment and  improvement  are  essential  in  this  as  in  other 
realms.  In  the  future,  more  than  in  the  past,  the  standard 
of  nations  will  be  determined  by  the  efficiency  of  labour 
and  the  fairness  with  which  wealth  is  distributed  among 
its  producers.  Though  we  have  prided  ourselves  on  the 
high  quality  of  British  labour  and  business  methods,  yet 
the  war  has  revealed  startling  deficiencies,  and  disclosed 
the  fact  that  the  potentialities  of  wealth  production  are 
enormously  greater  than  hitherto  dreamed  of,  and  that  by 


152  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

proper  organization  and  the  smooth  working  of  industrial 
forces  productivity  is  capable  of  extensive  expansion. 

The  fundamental  factor  in  the  content  of  labour  is 
wages  forthcoming  in  sufficiency  and  with  unfailing 
regularity.  Among  all  classes  an  adequate  and  regular 
income  is  regarded  as  the  first  essential  of  life. 
Nothing  is  so  demoralizing  to  the  worker  as  low  and 
uncertain  wages.  The  breadwinner  who  is  the  victim 
of  haphazard  methods  of  industrial  organization  and 
is  subject  to  periods  of  enforced  idleness  becomes 
moody  and  resentful  when  his  wife  and  children  suffer 
deprivation,  and  when  debts  are  incurred,  the  discharge 
of  which  lowers  the  subsistence  standard,  or  remains  as 
a  burden  gradually  dragging  down  him  and  his  to  the 
lower  strata  of  society.  Moreover,  many  a  man  whose 
habits  are  exemplary  when  employment  is  good  slips 
unconsciously  into  a  deteriorated  state  when  work  and  wa^es 
are  intermittent,  and  he  is  driven  to  despair  of  maintaining 
a  decent  standard  of  livelihood.  Thereby  is  also  created 
a  condition  of  mind  reflecting  class  hatred,  especially  when 
evidences  of  plenty,  luxury,  and  extravagant  expendituna 
are  flaunted   before  and  about  him. 

Despite  extraordinarily  increased  and  increasing  wealth, 
large  masses  of  our  working  population  are  yet  denied 
anything  approximating  to  a  guaranteed  living  wage.  This 
is  one  of  the  ugliest  blots  on  our  social  system,  as  well 
as  the  most  fruitful  cause  of  industrial  unrest.  Solve  this 
and  the  number  of  trade  disputes  will  diminish.  With  its 
solution,  too,  will  decline  the  terrible  evils  of  squalid  homes, 
ill -fed  children,  excessive  drinking,  and  all  those  ills  of 
poverty  origin  which  disfigure  civilization.  Some  groups 
of  highly  skilled  and  well -organized  workers  have  made 
substantial  progress  in  this  direction.  Generally  speaking, 
however,  the  majority  of  workers  possess  no  assurance  of 
a  living  wage  when  in  work,  let  alone  protection  against 
trade  fluctuations.  Thus  the  most  urgent  phase  of  the 
Labour  problem  is  a  guarantee  to  every  willing  worker  of 
such  a  wage  as  will  keep  himself  and  his  in  a  state  of 
decency  and  comfort. 

At  this  point  it  is  desirable  to  acquire  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  what  constitutes  a  living  wage.  A  weekly  wage 
that  but  suffices  for  the  weekly  need  is  not  a  living  wage. 
To  arrive  at  a  just  and  equitable  standard  account  must 
be  taken  of  the  whole  working  life  and  the  years  of  retire- 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  153 

ment  that  remain.  By  this  test  a  fair  wage  will  be  such 
as  provides  adequately  for  the  immjediate  need,  and  leaves 
a  margin  out  of  which  by  savings,  insurance,  etc.,  every 
worker  and  his  family  shall  be  made  secure  against  un- 
employment, sickness,  and  the  other  adversities  which  beset 
them  throughout  life.  In  the  event  of  the  .State  estab- 
lishing the  right  of  every  worker  to  wages  based  on  this 
principle,  it  will  be  entitled  to  require  that  provision  be 
made  for  non -working  periods.  Already  the  State  compels 
employed  persons  to  insure  against  sickness,  incapacity, 
and  in  certain  selected  trades  against  unemployment.  This 
system  might  be  extended  so  that  all  workers  are  insured 
for  a  minimum  weekly  allowance  when  wages  cannot  be 
earned,  leaving  to  the  thrifty  the  ability  to  make  additional 
provision  as  desired.  Maybe  this  proposal  will  be  con- 
strued by  some  as  a  further  interference  with  individual 
liberty.  Yet  assuredly  it  is  to  the  common  good  that  when 
sufficiency  is  placed  within  the  reach  of  all,  none  shall  dis- 
pose of  their  substance  so  as  to  become  dependent  on  their 
fellows.  Though  knowledge  of  my  class  allows  me  to 
state  that  the  careless  and  reckless  are  a  diminishing 
quantity,  yet  they  exist  in  numbers  that  might  prejudice 
the  commonweal  unless  the  State  adopts  safeguards  as 
here  foreshadowed.  Thereunder  the  indifferent  would  be 
compelled  to  do  what  the  better  types  undertake  voluntarily. 
Some  advance  by  the  State  has  been  made  towards  the 
fixation  of  fair  wages,  notably  in  the  Trade  Boards  Act, 
the  Fair  Wages  Clause  that  is  inserted  in  all  Government 
contracts,  and  during  the  war  by  the  Minister  of  Munitions 
in  State  factories  and  controlled  establishments.  These 
measures  have  laid  the  foundations  of  a  system,  which,  sup- 
plemental to  the  operations  of  trade  unionism,  is  capable  and 
easy  of  development  till  an  ample  and  regular  income  is 
assured  to  every  working-class  family  in  the  land.  In 
my  opinion,  it  should  be  made  a  misdemeanour  for  any 
person  to  take  another  into  employment  unless  able  and 
willing  to  pay  him  a  living  wage.  An  industry  that  fails 
to  accord  this  is  parasitic  in  character.  Underpaid  workers 
have  sooner  or  later  to  resort  to  charity,  the  Poor  Law, 
or  other  adventitious  aids  to  help  make  up  the  deficiency. 
Should  there  be  any  industry  that  cannot  bear  labour 
charges  on  the  scale  indicated,  which  it  is  desirable  to 
preserve,  it  is  preferable  that  it  should  be  State-aided 
openly  and   directly. 


154  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

Politicians  and  leaders  of  every  class  and  school  of 
thought  acknowledge  that  the  war  has  wrought  such  a 
social  upheaval  that  depressed  labour  conditions  cannot  be 
tolerated  in  post-war  times.  Our  gallant  defenders  have 
earned  the  right  to  a  fair  and  secure  stake  in  the  country. 
Furthermore,  it  is  believed  that  the  occasion  will  have  im- 
pressed them  with  a  sense  of  their  worth,  and  inspired 
them  with  a  determination  to  make  their  native  land  a 
fitting  abode  for  all  its  people — a  place  in  which  every 
one  has  a  chance  of  full  development.  How  much  better 
will  it  be  if  the  spirit  of  unity  animating  all  classes  in 
the  course  of  the  war  incline  all  towards  conaperation  in 
this  task  of  regeneration,  rather  than  that  ex-service  men 
should  be  compelled  to  wage  acrimonious  struggle  for  the 
right  to  live  in  a  manner  human  justice  demands,  after 
they  have  vanquished  for  all  of  us  the  foes  of  human 
liberty  and  world -peace. 

Particularly  desirable  is  co-operation  between  the 
employing  and  employed  classes.  Aloofness  and  mis- 
understanding between  these  important  sections  are  a  potent 
contributory  to  industrial  inefficiency.  Unless  a  closer 
degree  of  partnership  can  be  effected,  the  future  of 
industry  will  be  extremely  turbulent.  Some  employers  are 
too  prone  to  regard  an  approach  from  their  workpeople 
as  an  impudent  interference  with  their  business.  "Wo 
intend  to  run  our  business  in  our  own  way  "  represents 
the  attitude  of  this  type.  But  these  employers  must  learn 
that  the  way  they  run  their  business  is  a  matter  also  of 
social  concern,  and  that  they  cannot  regard  labour  as  they 
do  inanimate  things.  Every  one  they  employ  is  a  human 
being,  instinct  with  feeling  and  need,  aspiration  and  possi- 
bility, like  themselves.  Gladly  does  one  observe  the 
growing  disposition  to  have  recourse  to  conciliation  land 
arbitration  in  the  settlement  of  disputed  questions.  Yet 
that  is  not  sufficient  :  the  highest  interests  of  industry 
are  of  as  much  concern  to  employed  as  employer,  and 
they  should  be  invited  to  consultation  as  to  the  means  of 
furthering  those  interests.  It  is  invariably  found  that 
workers  respond  to  fair  and  considerate  treatment.  By 
taking  them  into  greater  confidence,  either  directly  or 
through  their  accredited  representatives,  they  will  become 
more  interested  and  efficient  workers,  and  more  dignified 
and  responsible  citizens.  By  the  establishment  in  every 
works    of    a    committee,    consisting    of    the    directors    and 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  155 

managers,  together  with  a  corresponding  number  of 
workers  elected  by  their  fellows,  and  holding  regular  meet- 
ings, many  valuable  suggestions  would  be  forthcoming, 
causes  of  friction  dispelled,  and  improved  understanding 
ensue,  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  the  parties   concerned. 

No  student  of  our  industrial  system  will  claim  that  un- 
fettered private  enterprise  has  been  completely  successful. 
Rule-of-thumb  methods  are  still  too  prevalent,  scientific 
organization  and  the  most  toodern  mechanical  appliances 
are  not  fully  utilized.  Land  has  gone  out  of  cultivation, 
and  vital  industries  have  languished  to  the  detriment  of 
the  State.  Labour  conditions  are  chaotic  and  bristling 
with  injustices  and  anomalies.  Employers  must  now  recog- 
nize that  in  engaging  labour  they  inferentially  assume 
responsibility  for  its  wellbeing.  If  they  exhibit  lack  of 
ability  or  unwillingness  to  co-ordinate  satisfactorily  the 
interests  of  capital  and  labour,  the  State  must  intervene 
for  that  purpose. 

Whilst  directing  attention  to  the  shortcomings  of  the 
employing  classes,  enlightened  labour  opinion  does  not  claim 
that  the  workers  are  without  fault.  Yet  this  much  may 
be  said  in  extenuation  on  their  behalf  :  the  lesser  power 
for  good  or  ill  has  rested  with  them,  hence  their  respon- 
sibility is  the  lesser.  Mr.  Hartley  Withers,  lately  Financial 
Adviser  to  the  Treasury,  in  a  recently  published  book, 
entitled  "  International  Finance,"  states  that  a  regime  of 
specialization  '*  has  brought  to  the  majority  a  life  of 
mechanical  and  monotonous  toU,  with  little  or  none  of  the 
pride  in  a  job  well  done,  such  as  was  enjoyed  by  the 
savage  when  he  made  his  bow  or  caught  his  fish."  Having 
regard  to  the  uninteresting  and  changeless  occupations  re- 
ferred to,  it  is  not  surprising  that  many  sink  into  a  state 
of  perfunctory  performance  of  the  daily  round,  and  an 
habitual  yearning  for  the  close  of  the  working  day.  More- 
over, many  have  experienced  the  fact  that  the  use  of 
machinery  has  not  lightened  their  labour,  and  that  a  fair 
share  of  the  prosperity  that  flows  from  improved  means  of 
production  is  denied  to  them.  Industrial  history  records 
not  a  few  illustrations  where  the  intenser  application  of 
skill  and  attention  has  brought  little  or  no  advantage  to 
the  worker.  For  a  time  he  may  have  been  encouraged 
by  higher  remuneration  to  test  the  pxissibilities  of  new 
machinery  and  methods.  When  these  have  been  ascer- 
tained wage   rates  have   been  depressed   to  a  point  nearly 


156  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

related  to  older  conditions.  Such  a  policy  stifles  ambi- 
tion, weakens  individuality,  and  tends  to  that  restricted 
production  which  is  animated  by  conceptions  of  self -pro- 
tection. The  truth  is  that  the  relationship  of  employer 
and  employed  too  often  lacks  an  ethical  basis.  Where 
the  quest  of  profit  is  pursued  without  due  regard  to  the 
human  factor,  there  the  worker  will  either  consciously  or 
subconsciously  adjust  output  in  like  spirit. 

One  of  the  great  lessons  of  the  ^var  is  that  our  industrial 
system  is  capable  of  almost  indefinite  expansion.  Despite 
the  withdrawal  of  over  five  millions  of  workers,  changes 
have  been  wrought  speedily  and  yet  so  effectively  as  to 
maintain  production  at  an  even  higher  level  than  prevailed 
in  pre-war  times.  These  changes  have  been  concerned 
mainly  with  the  reorganization  of  methods  on  more  scientific 
lines,  the  relaxation  of  trade  union  rules  and  practices,  and 
a  widespread  employment  of  female  labour.  While  the 
first -named  will  endure  and  be  further  developed,  it  is 
not  desirable  that  the  other  two  changes  should  be  per- 
petuated as  they  have  existed  during  the  war.  Excessive 
hours  and  too -intensified  application  over  prolonged  periods 
inevitably  ensue  in  physical  and  mental  tension  and  break- 
down. Rest  and  recreation  are  as  essential  as  technical 
knowledge  to  efficient  labour. 

Inspired  by  a  fine  patriotism,  many  women  have  under- 
taken tasks  which  considerations  of  race  future  and  womanly 
quality  decree  should  revert  to  the  sterner  sex  when  the 
national  emergency  has  passed.  Nevertheless,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  war  has  facilitated  the  entry  of  women  into 
wider  spheres  of  industry.  Thus  the  question  of  female 
labour  is  likely  to  cause  anxious  consideration.  Many 
Trade  Unions  have  hitherto  resisted  the  incursion  of  women 
into  the  domain  they  seek  to  control.  This  attitude  has 
not  been  based  so  much  on  a  sex  objection  as  on  the  fact 
that  women  have  frequently  been  used  to  lower  prevalent 
rates  of  wages.  Given  an  acceptance  of  the  principle  of 
equal  pay  for  equal  work,  regardless  of  sex,  this  trouble 
would  disappear. 

The  importance  of  regulating  the  hours  of  labour  is 
revealed  by  the  investigations  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Health  of  Mimition  Workers.  The  Committee,  which 
included  eminent  doctors,  officials,  and  representatives 
of  labour,  was  set  up  in  1 9 1 5  to  inquire  into  all 
questions   affecting    the   health   of   munition    workers.       In 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  157 

the  urgent  crisis  of  the  need  for  shells  the  policy  was 
pursued  of  lengthening  the  hours  of  work,  of  establishing 
a  seven -day  working  week,  of  abolishing  holidays  and 
periods  of  relaxation,  and  of  speeding  up  workers  to  their 
maximum  pace  and  endurance.  This  policy  soon  proved 
wasteful  and  dangerous.  The  Committee  point  out  that 
the  country  was  involved  in  the  "  extravagance  of  paying 
for  work  done  during  incapacity  from  fatigue  just  because 
so  many  hours  are  spent  upon  it,  and  the  further  extrava- 
gance of  urging  armies  of  workmen  towards  relative 
incapacity  by  neglect  of  physiological  law."  The  net  result 
was  to  limit  output  and  to  impair  the  health  of  the  worker, 
who  was  working  longer  hours  and  turning  out  fewer  shells. 
From  the  report  of  this  Committee  will  be  gathered  th'e 
fact  that  a  proper  regard  for  physiological  law  is  essential 
to  industrial  efficiency. 

These  conditions  show  that  the  main  lines  of  progress 
lay  in  the  use  of  the  most  jperfect  machinery,  the  scientific 
organization  of  methods,  and,  perhaps  most  important  of  all, 
the  individual  efficiency  of  the  worker.  Under  war  stress 
the  status  of  groups  of  labour  has  been  readjusted — semi- 
skilled have  been  raised  to  that  of  the  skilled  and  unskilled 
to  that  of  the  semi-skilled,  etc.  Admitting  that  it  is  un- 
economic to  retain  men  of  great  skill  and  capacity  at  minor 
operations,  the  foregoing  should  make  for  industrial  pro- 
gress. When  industry  is  properly  ordered  so  that  workers 
are  regularly  employed  according  to  their  respective 
capacities,  efficiency  and  expanding  output  will  result  from 
every  worker  being  able  to  visualize  a  career  in  which 
increasing  skill  and  honest  endeavour  are  accompanied  by 
proportionate  rewards. 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  employers  to  protest  against 
the  establishment  of  standard  wages  and  conditions  of 
employment  because  there  are  inefficients  in  industry. 
Whilst  the  facts  are  often  greatly  exaggerated  there  is 
substance  in  them,  though  the  implication  that  Trade 
Unions  are  concerned  to  uphold  inefficiency  is  without 
foundation.  It  must  be  remembered  that  workers  combine 
together  in  an  endeavour  to  improve  and  to  regulate  the 
conditions  of  their  industrial  life.  To  achieve  their  purposes 
it  is  necessary  to  safeguard  against  idisrupting  their  member- 
ships, to  the  detriment  of  general  standards,  because  the 
capacity  of  a  few  is  below  the  average.  Minimum  wages 
are  invariably  fixed  with  a  regard  to  the  average   worker 


ISS  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

in  a  trade.  Employers  are  not  compelled  to  engage 
inefficients,  and  as  a  margin  of  labour  usually  exists  in 
industry  they  are  able  to  exercise  considerable  discrimina- 
tion in  selecting  their  staffs. 

Even  in  submitting  the  foregoing  I  am  vividly  conscious 
that  the  standards  of  efficiency  of  both  employers  and 
workpeople  leave  much  to  be  desired.  Indeed,  it  is  patent 
that  because  of  this  our  industrial  supremacy  is  seriously 
challenged  by  other  great  industrial  nations,  notably 
America  and  Germany.  Therefore,  unless  we  speedily 
enhance  the  efficiency  of  our  industrial  classes  so  that  out- 
put is  stimulated,  recuperation  from  the  effects  of  the  war 
will  be  tardy,  and  the  nation  will  be  hurled  from  its 
financial,  commercial,  and  industrial  eminence  by  those 
countries  which  are  zealously  experimenting  in  and  rapidly 
solving  the  problem.  Research  proves  that  the  problem 
is  complex  in  character.  Only  the  superficial  imind  attri- 
butes it  entirely  to  any  single  cause,  such  as  the  wanton- 
ness of  Trade  Unions  or  the  shortcomings  of  employers. 
The  nation  as  a  whole  must  share  responsibility  and  search 
out  causes  deep  down  at  the  very  roots  of  society. 

First,  our  educational  system  requires  to  be  overhauled. 
Short-sighted  persons  give  too  little  heed  to  the  school 
age,  and  seem  anxious  to  shorten  it  and  to  thrust  children 
to  toil  as  early  as  possible.  Yet  a  sound  elementary  educa- 
tion is  essential  to  all-round  efficiency.  It  is  the  base 
on  which  must  rest  the  whole  superstructure  of  perfected 
industry,  and  unless  laid  firm  and  secure  will  fail  to  with- 
stand the  strain  and  stress  to  which  international  competi- 
tion wiU  subject  it.  During  the  latter  stages  of  the  school 
period  the  aptitudes  of  the  child  should  be  watched 
and  noted.  If  directed  to  an  industrial  career  it  should 
pass  to  the  technical  college,  the  curriculum  of  which 
is  shaped  with  a  due  regard  to  that  form  of  industry 
for  which  it  appears  the  child  is  best  adapted. 
When  the  factory  or  workshop  is  entered,  regular  attend- 
ance at  the  technical  college  should  form  part  of  the 
period  of  apprenticeship  or  training*.  Thus  will  be 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  relation  of  a  single  process 
to  the  completed  whole.  What  is  so  deadening  to 
character  as  to  place  a  lad  in  a  works  at  an  operation 
which  may  be  performed  throughout  the  working  life  with- 
out his  ever  really  understanding  the  relationship  of  distinct 
processes  to  a  complicated  product?     Wherever  practicable. 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  159 

too,  he  should  be  transferred  periodically  from  one 'Operation 
to  another. 

Hitherto  the  recruitment  of  industries  has  been  very 
haphazard.  Such  a  system  as  outlined  is  necessary  to 
insure  the  higher  efficiency  to  be  aimed  at.  It  should 
be  observed  that  it  involves  a  closer  correlation  of  the 
conditions  of  school  life  and  the  period  of  industrial  train- 
ing. Too  often  a  lad  enters  a  works  for  the  simple  reason 
that  it  is  near  to  his  home,  and  without  the  slightest  regard 
to  his  individual  capacity.  This  is  a  fruitful  cause  of 
inefficiency,  and  accounts  very  often  for  the  fact  that  a 
man  who  might  have  made  a  competent  engineer  is  an 
indifferent  clerk,  or  that  he  is  a  casual  labourer  instead 
of  a  skilled  artisan.  A  well -furnished  mind  engaged  at 
appropriate  work,  where  the  spirit  of  craftsmanship  is 
fostered,  makes  for  a  greater  and  higher  quality  of  output. 
When  the  problem  is  viewed  broadly  it  becomes  clear  that 
the  doctrine  of  laissez-faire  must  be  interred  beyond  the 
possibility  of  resurrection.  In  future  all  classes  in  the 
State  must  combine  to  promote  the  nation's  industries  with 
a  view  to  individual  wellbeing  and  greater  national  self- 
dependency,  security,  and  strength.  Given  a  wiser  direc- 
tion of  the  worker  to  the  class  of  labour  for  which  he 
is  best  adapted,  together  with  the  establishment  of  universal 
wage  standards  of  the  character  before  stated,  with  rising 
grades  of  remuneration  for  those  of  superior  skill  and 
industriousness,  it  may  be  confidently  anticipated  that 
production   will   be   stimulated   enormously. 

That  the  elevation  of  labour  is  dependent  on  flourishing 
industry  is  self-evident.  Regularity  of  employment  and 
high  wages  are  only  assured  by  good  and  stable  trade. 
Undeniably  even  under  existing  conditions  all-round  im- 
provement in  social  standards  would  be  effected  by  a 
juster  distribution  of  wealth.  The  colossal  expenditure  on 
the  war  has,  however,  diminished  the  possibilities  in  this 
direction.  Hence  if  war  wastage  is  to  be  rapidly  repaired, 
and  the  satisfaction  of  labour  pursued,  wealth  production 
must  be  augmented.  This  problem  presents  peculiar  diffi- 
culties in  an  old  and  settled  country  like  Great  Britain, 
where  the  resources  of  land,  minerals,  etc.,  are  already 
in  course  of  exploitation.  Here  progress  must  rest  par- 
ticularly on  the  application  of  intensive  methods,  such  as 
the  utilization  of  the  most  perfect  mechanical  equipment, 
the    most    scientific    organization,    and    the    most    efficient 


i6o  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

labour.  Our  great  industrial  rivals  are  attending  to  these 
principles  of  industry,  besides  which  they  possess  the  advan- 
tage of  unexploited  natural  resources.  Thus  for  us  a 
general  increase  of  output  becomes  a  matter  of  extreme 
urgency.  If  not  secured,  we  shall  soon  be  outstripped 
by  competitors  whose  keenness  and  thoroughness  ever 
becomes   more   clearly   manifest. 

Output,  then,  being  the  outstanding  factor,  national 
welfare  demands  the  harmonious  co-operation  of  all  parties 
for  this  purpose.  As  output  expands,  the  greater  the  wealth 
created  and  divisible.  Hitherto  the  workers  have  not  seen 
this  very  clearly,  mainly  because  they  have  been  denied 
the  sense  and  advantage  of  parmership.  Labour  must  be 
given  the  certainty  of  reaping  extra  reward  for  extra  skill 
and  effort,  otherwise  the  additional  exertion  will  naturally 
not  be  made  and  the  needed  results  will  not  be  forth- 
coming. In  the  past  workers  have  been  haunted  with  the 
fear  that  expansive  output  would  result  in  glutted  markets 
and  unemployment.  The  occasion  is  favourable  for  re- 
moving this  dread.  Terrible  warfare  will  have  reduced 
the  nation's  man-power,  and  the  necessity  to  readjust  the 
balance  of  our  financial  relations  to  other  countries  will 
render  it  desirable  to  reduce  the  excess  of  imports  over 
exports.  These  conditions,  coupled  with  an  equitable  diffu- 
sion of  national  wealth  whereby  the  demand  for  and  the 
consumption  of  commodities  will  be  stimulated,  will  tend 
to  steady  both  trade  and  employment. 

Whilst  it  does  not  seem  possible  to  so  order  a  complex 
industrial  system  as  to  secure  absolute  immunity  for  every 
worker  against  periods  of  under -employment  or  unemploy- 
ment, yet  much  may  be  done  by  foresight  and  organization 
to  compass  this  evil.  Cyclical  fluctuations  of  trade  and 
seasonal  variations  of  employment  can  be  anticipated,  and 
the  dislocations  caused  thereby  can  be  ameliorated.  Else- 
where I  have  submitted  insurance  against  these  periods 
as  a  palliative.  But  this  will  do  little  to  steady  trade  and 
employment  unless  measures  are  adopted  for  preventing 
all  possibly  preventible  displacement  of  labour.  Recently, 
owing  to  shortage  of  labour,  the  chaotic  struggle  at  docks, 
etc.,  has  been  grappled  with,  inasmuch  as  that  it  is  found 
possible  to  dovetail  jobs  and  give  greater  regularity  of 
employment  to  this  group  of  workers.  This  policy  is 
capable  of  extension.  National  and  local  authorities,  too, 
may  by  arranging  the  placing  of  contracts  to   correspond 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  i6i 

with  periods  of  trade  depression  also  contribute  to  the 
regularization  of  trade  and  employment.  True,  the  placing 
of  such  contracts  may  not  directly  absorb  labour  unem- 
ployed at  the  time.  Yet  trade  stimulated  among  groups  of 
workers  reacts  beneficially  on  the  mass,  and  when  applied 
widely  and  systematically  will  greatly  ease  recurrent 
industrial   depressions . 

Just  as  State  supervision  is  necessary  to  the  harmonious 
co-ordination  of  the  interests  of  capital  and  labour,  so  State 
action  is  essential  to  the  organization  and  regularization 
of  employment.  In  this  connection  it  is  g^ratifying  to  have 
Government  recognition  of  the  importance  of  this,  as  evi- 
denced in  the  creation  of  a  Ministry  of  Labour  and  the 
development  of  the  Board  of  Trade  more  in  accord  with 
a  Ministry  of  Commerce.  The  function  of  the  former  is 
to  deal  with  matters  affecting  labour  conditions  ;  while 
the  latter  will  watch  and  cultivate  both  home  and  foreign 
markets.  With  a  co-ordinated  policy  these  two  depart- 
ments are  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  pro- 
motion of  trade  and  the  well-being  of  the  working -classes. 

As  industrial  and  commercial  power  will  abide  with  the 
nations  who  erect  their  economic  structure  on  the  soundest 
principles,  it  behoves  our  industrial  classes  to  early  bestir 
themselves.  No  people  excel  and  few  equal  the  Britisher 
when  terms  are  anything  like  equal.  In  this  country 
organizing  and  administrative  talent  is  plentiful  ;  while  with 
considerate  treatment  our  workpeople  can  prove  themselves 
among  the  most  efficient  in  the  world.  Their  cordial  co- 
operation can  be  won  and  their  confidence  gained  if  such 
treatment  is  given  to  them.  Place  them  in  possession  of 
knowledge  of  the  actual  conditions  of  business  and  manage- 
ment ;  make  them  feel  that  they  are  an  integral  part  of 
industry  by  disclosing  to  them  the  necessity  for  and  results 
of  joint  effort,  and  above  all  prove  that  when  doing  their 
best  the  greatest  possible  return  is  made  to  them.  When 
each  side  understands  the  point  of  view  and  difficulties 
of  the  other  a  great  step  forward  will  be  taken  towards 
that  harmonious  co-ordination  which  is  essential  to  the 
development  and  prosperity  of  British  industry.  Such  a 
policy,  combined  with  the  application  of  science,  invention, 
and  enterprise,  will  produce  that  efficiency  of  production 
which  will  keep   the   country   in   the   forefront  of  nations. 

If  a  better  spirit  in  industry  is  to  prevail,  employers 
must  abandon   mistrust   of  and   hostility   to  Trade   Unions. 


1 62  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

In  fact,  workers  should  be  encouraged  to  unite  for  mutual 
purposes.  On  the  other  hand,  employers  should  organize 
for  the  regulation  of  conditions  common  to  the  trade. 
Experience  shows  already  that  in  those  industries  wherfe 
employers  and  employed  are  well  organized,  and  where 
the  two  sides  meet  readily  in  conference,  there  conditions 
are  more  settled  and  agreeable.  These  are  signs  pointing 
in  the  right  direction,  revealing  the  fact,  as  expressed  by 
Professor  Ashley,  that  "  society  is  feeling  the  way  with 
painful  steps  towards  a  corporate  organization  of  industry 
on  the  side  alike  of  employer  and  employed  :  to  be,  then, 
more  harmoniously,  let  us  hope,  associated  together,  'with 
the  State  alert  and  intelligent  in  the  backgroimd  to  protect 
the  interests   of  the   community." 

With  this  corporate  organization  agreements  as  to  wages, 
hours,  and  general  conditions  will  be  negotiated  and  become 
operative  generally  without  the  intervention  of  the  State. 
Nevertheless,  both  sides  may  suffer  and  industrial  peacct 
be  disturbed  because  some  remain  outside  the  respective 
organizations  and  refuse  to  be  bound  by  an  agreement  to 
which  they  are  not  individually  parties.  The  disastrous 
strike  in  the  London  Docks  in  19 12  was  attributable 
primarily  to  the  default  of  certain  employers  in  this  respect. 
In  the  interests  of  industrial  peace  this  must  be  guarded 
against.  In  June  191 2  the  Government  referred  to  thte 
Industrial  Council,  a  body  consisting  of  twelve  representa- 
tives of  Trade  Unions  and  twelve  employers,  presided  over 
by  Sir  George  Askwith,  the  Chief  Industrial  Commissioner, 
the  two  following  questions  :  (a)  What  is  the  best  method 
of  securing  the  due  fulfilment  of  industrial  agreements  ?  and 
(b)  How  far,  and  in  what  manner,  industrial  agreements 
which  are  made  between  bodies  of  employers  and  of  work- 
men should  be  enforced  throughout  a  particular  trade  or 
district  ?  I     '        !  !  "!     ^ 

The  evidence  taken  showed  that,  notwithstanding  the  diffi- 
culties inherent  in  dealing  with  large  numbers  of  work- 
people, agreements  in  most  cases  are  well  kept.  The  success 
attending  the  operations  of  various  voluntary  boards  of 
conciliation  and  arbitration  was  noted,  and  the  desirability 
of  maintaining  this  form  of  adjusting  disputes  was  com- 
mended. The  basis  of  these  boards  is  mutual  consent, 
and  their  value  depends  upon  the  loyal  acceptance,  on 
the  part  of  both  sides,  of  the  decisions  arrived  at  in  accord- 
ance with   the   procedure  of  the  boards.     This  acceptance 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  163 

is  purely  voluntary,  depending  solely  upon  a  sense  of  moral 
obligation.  Unanimity  appears  to  have  existed  respecting 
the  desirability  of  preserving  the  principle  of  collective 
bargaining.  The  report  stated  it  was  regarded  as  axiomatic 
that  nothing  should  be  done  that  would  lead  to  the  abandon- 
ment of  a  method  of  adjusting  the  relationships  between 
employers  and  workpeople  which  has  proved  so  mutually 
advantageous  throughout  most  of  the  trades  of  the  country. 

Complete  organization  is,  of  course,  the  best  means  of 
securing  the  fulfilment  of  agreements.  Where  the  associa- 
tions of  employers  and  workpeople  include  an  overwhelm- 
ing proportion  of  the  persons  engaged  in  a  trade  on  both 
sides,  breaches  rarely  occur,  or  if  they  do  take  place, 
generally  occasion  little  difficulty,  since  they  are  dealt  with 
by  the  prompt  and  efficient  action  of  the  Employers 
Association  or  the  Trade  Union,  as  the  case  may  be.  But 
where  organization  is  imperfect,  agreements  reached  by 
such  employers  and  workpeople  as  are  organized  are  con-^ 
stantly  imperilled  owing  to  the  inability  of  either  side  to 
take  effective  action  against  those  whose  fractiousness  may 
kindle  industrial   conflict. 

To  meet  these  cases  the  details  of  a  scheme  were  drawn 
up.  This  provided  that  where  an  industrial  agreement 
has  been  arrived  at  between  representatives  of  employers' 
associations  and  trade  unions  in  a  particular  trade  or 
district,  it  shall  be  competent  for  the  parties  to  the  agree- 
ment to  apply  (at  any  time  during  the  currency  of  the 
agreement)  to  the  Board  of  Trade  to  cause  an  inquiry  to 
be  held,  by  such  authority  as  the  Board  of  Trade  may 
direct,  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  agreement  shall 
be  extended  and  its  terms  made  obligatory  upon  all  persons 
concerned.  Upon  receipt  of  the  application  the  Board  of 
Trade  shall  arrange  for  an  inquiry.  If  the  authority  thus 
appointed  are  satisfied,  after  holding  the  inquiry,  that  the 
associations  represented  by  the  signatories  to  the  agree- 
ment constitute  a  substantial  body  of  the  employers  and 
workpeople  in  the  trade  or  district,  and  that  the  agreem'ent 
is  a  proper  agreement  and  one  that  may  suitably  be  ex- 
tended, the  authority  may  declare  that  the  agreement  covers 
the  whole  trade  or  district.  It  then  acquires  legal  sanction 
and  becomes  an  implied  term  of  any  contract  of  service 
in  the  particular  trade  dr  district  that  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  are  an  essential  part  of  such  contract.  The 
legalization   of   industrial   agreements   as    suggested   would 


1 64  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

eliminate  one  cause  of  strikes,  and  possesses  the  advantage 
of  retaining  unimpaired  the  voluntary  character  of 
employers*   associations   and  trade   unions. 

In  those  instances  where  the  organization  of  employers 
and  workmen  is  weak  or  lacking,  legislation  must  be 
resorted  to  in  order  to  establish  a  living  wage  and  regu- 
larized working  hours.  This  might  generally  take  the 
form  of  extending  the  principle  of  the  Trade  Boards  Act 
to  include  all  such  cases.  Agriculture  affords  a  typical 
illustration.  In  most  districts  farm  labourers  have  found 
it  impossible  to  take  part  in  building  up  a  strong  and 
lasting  combination.  This  is  due  to  low  wages,  the  isolated 
conditions  of  rural  life,  and  the  comparative  want  of 
mobility  in  seeking  other  employment.  Yet  the  pursuit 
of  agriculture  requires  considerable  training  and  the  exercise 
of  much  skill.  It  is  alleged  that  the  cause  of  the  failure  of 
farm  workers  to  obtain  a  living  wage  is  to  be  found 
in  the  depressed  state  of  agriculture.  But  this  is  only 
partially  true,  for  where  competitive  industries  exist  higher 
wages  have  to  be  paid  in  order  to  retain  labour.  Whilst  it 
is  true  that  during  the  period  .of  i  871-1906  agriculture  was 
in  anything  but  a  satisfactory  condition,  it  may  fairly  be 
urged  that  had  farmers  exhibited  more  cohesion  and  enter- 
prise, and  been  animated  by  a  greater  concern  for  the  welfare 
of  the  labourer,  better  wages  might  have  prevailed .  This  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the  more  enlightened  of  them 
have  paid  wages  above  the  average,  and  still  made  farming 
profitable.  During  the  past  ten  years,  too,  the  prices  of 
agricultural  produce  have  risen,  but  the  labourer  has  not 
shared  adequately  in  the  renewed  prosperity.  It  is  certain 
that  the  State  cannot  allow  any  section  of  workers  to  con- 
tinue in  receipt  of  uneconomic  wages.  Such  industries  as 
that  of  agriculture  are  essential  to  the  nation,  therefore! 
must  be  brought  under  State  supervision,  so  as  to  secure 
justice  to  the  labourer  and  stability  arid  prosperity  to  those 
industries.  Here  again  progress  has  to  be  acknowledged. 
The  Government  having  decided  on  a  vigorous  agricultural 
policy  have  incorporated  a  minimum  wage  of  25s.  a  week 
as  an  essential  part  of  that  policy.  Not  only  will  this 
advantage  the  rural  population  but  it  will  react  beneficially 
on  the  whole  wage -earning  classes. 

To  achieve  and  secure  these  purposes  our  industrial 
classes  must  possess  an  appreciation  of  great  world  facts, 
and    the    bearing    of    not    only    national    but    international 


THE  STANDPOINT  OF  LABOUR      165 

economics  on  domestic  problems.  Owing  to  the  neglect 
of  agriculture  and  of  pivotal  industries  the  defensive  power 
of  the  nation  was  weakened  during  the  war.  But  for  the 
fortunate  fact  that  our  magnificent  Navy  was  jmobilized 
at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  was  able  to  blockade 
the  enemy's  fleet,  it  might  well  have  happened  that  our 
people  would  have  experienced  scarcity  and  even  want  of 
necessities.  As  it  is,  new  and  sinister  devices  of  maritime 
warfare  have  threatened  the  national  life,  and  afforded 
glimpses  of  the  terrors  which  would  have  befallen  us  had 
a  number  of  enemy  cruisers  slipped  away  on  piracy  bent. 
Most  people  hope  this  war  may  end  war,  but  it  may  not. 
Thus  those  responsible  for  national  defence  are  bound  to 
be  guided  by  the  lessons  of  this  war,  conscious  that  the 
destruction  of  ships  and  cargoes  may  be  infinitely  more 
devastating  in  the  event  of  another  such  catastrophe. 
Lieut. -Colonel  Sir  Maurice  Hankey,  K.C.B.,  Secretary  to 
the  Committee  of  National  Defence,  stated  in  evidence 
before  the  Departmental  Committee  appointed  to  consider 
the  settlement  and  employment  on  the  land  of  discharged 
sailors  and  soldiers,  that  the  weak  point  of  this  country  in 
the  matter  of  defence  is  its  dependence  upon  imported 
supplies,  and  that  while  the  cutting  ofi",  for  a  time,  of  the 
imports  of  raw  materials  for  industries  would  be  serious, 
the  nation  could  tide  over  such  a  period  provided  it  had 
adequate  supplies  of  food. 

In  this  connection,  too,  the  large  number  of  merchant 
vessels  requisitioned  for  the  conveyance  to  the  several 
theatres  of  war  of  troops,  stores,  and  munitions  has  created 
a  shortage  of  ships  available  for  overseas  commerce.  This 
shortage  has  allowed  shipowners  to  levy  extortionate 
freightage  charges,  which  have  contributed  to  swollen  prices, 
whereby  the  poverty  of  the  poor  has  been  cruelly  aggra- 
vated, and  irritation  and  unrest  been  created  even  among 
the  fully  employed  and  better-paid  groups  of  workers. 
Regrettable  as  is  industrial  disturbance  during  an  unpre- 
cedented war,  it  must  be  remembered  that  when  workers 
are  exerting  themselves  to  the  uttermost  over  unusually 
long  hours  for  the  sake  of  their  country,  resentment  is 
natural  when  it  is  found  that  the  real  values  of  hardly 
earned  wages  are  whittled  away  by  an  unnecessarily 
enhanced  cost  of  living.  While  most  are  willing  to  recog- 
nize that  in  war-time  a  rise  in  prices  is  perhaps  unavoid- 
able, indignation  is  justifiable  when  it  is  known  that  part 


1 66  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

at  least  of  the  burden  is  imposed  by  interests  taking 
advantage   of   a   national    emergency   for   private  ends. 

One  way  of  avoiding  a  recurrence  of  these  evils  is  by 
increasing  home -produced  supplies.  Whenever  it  is  neces- 
sary to  go  into  the  world -markets,  the  prices  there  pre- 
vailing must  be  paid.  During  the  war  the  needs  of 
belligerent  nations  have  been  so  imperative,  that  those 
holding  supplies  have  controlled  prices.  According  to 
Professor  W.  G.  Adams,  the  increase  in  the  cost  of 
imported  foodstuffs  in  1 9 1  5,  as  compared  with  1 9 1 3, 
amounted  to  no  less  than  £85,000,000,  although  the  actual 
quantity  imported  had  not  been  increased  at  all.  In  the 
case  of  home -produced  supplies  public  opinion  and  govern- 
mental action  can  influence  prices,  but  are  powerless  in 
foreign  markets.  This  helplessness  is  strictly  proportionate 
to  our  need,  inasmuch  as  that  our  great  dependency  on 
outside  sources  has  been  the  main  cause  of  inflated  prices. 
At  present  we  import  four-fifths  of  the  wheat  and  one-half 
of  the  meat  we  consume,  as  well  as  enormous  supplies  of 
cheese,  butter,  sugar,  fruit,  eggs,  and  other  produce.  The 
average  value  of  such  imports,  excluding  tropical  pro- 
ducts, but  including  sugar,  consumed  in  the  United  King- 
dom in  the  three  years  prior  to  the  outbreak  of  war, 
1911-13,  exceeded  £200,000,000  per  annum.  Much  of 
these  supplies  could  be  produced  at  home,  for  our  soil  is 
among  the  most  fertile  in  the  world,  and  our  climate  not 
less  favourable  than  that,  say,  of  Denmark.  By  decreasing 
reliance  on  imported  supplies  greater  control  can  be  exer- 
cised over  prices,  and  as  the  cost  of  living  has  a  direct 
bearing  on  wages,  it  is  a  sound  and  economic  policy  to 
encourage  and  develop  domestic  production. 

The  foregoing  emphasizes  the  necessity  for  Labour  taking 
a  broad  view  of  industrial  affairs,  and  of  co-operating  on 
national  lines  to  make  the  country  increasingly  self- 
supporting.  This  policy  will  contribute  to  the  steadying 
of  trade  and  prices  ;  will  bring  individual  and  social 
destinies  under  more  effective  control,  and  add  to  the 
strength  and  prosperity  of  the  nation,  for  future  well- 
being  is  indissolubly  involved  in  the  highest  possible  de- 
velopment of  native  land,  capital,  and  labour.  Foreign 
trade  statistics  regarded  as  an  index  of  national  prosperity 
are  often  misleading.  If  whUe  figures  reveal  prodigious 
exports  of  cotton  and  woollen  goods,  boots,  and  other  manu- 
factures, masses   of  our  own  people  are  in  need  of,   but 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  167. 

unable  to  purchase,  these  goods,  can  it  be  truly  said  that 
the  nation  is  prosperous  ?  Similarly,  when  a  huge  volume 
of  goods  is  imported,  while  labour  and  materials  near 
at  hand  are  not  employed,  can  it  be  claimed  that  the 
nation  pursues  the  wisest  and  most  economic  policy  ?  To 
state  these  facts  reveals  a  paradox.  Our  objective,  then, 
should  be  the  exploitation  of  all  home  resources,  and  the 
endowment  of  every  family  with  a  just  share  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  industry,  so  that  all  may  have  a  sufficiency  of 
necessities  and  full  participation  in  the  amenities  of  life. 
A  flourishing  home  market,  created  by  the  ability  of  all 
to  purchase  and  consume  goods,  gives  the  greatest  possible 
stability  to  trade  and  commerce.  This  does  not  mean 
the  destruction  of  overseas  trade.  As  the  status  of  the 
working  classes  is  raised  physical  and  mental  fitness 
develops,  together  with  greater  interest  and  contentment. 
These  qualities  constitute  the  basis  of  efficient  labour  and 
expandmg  output.  Placed  in  conjunction  with  initiative, 
enterprise,  and  energy  on  the  part  of  business  men,  pro- 
duction will  assume  dimensions  sufficient  for  both  home 
demands  and  a  large  foreign  trade. 

Realizing  the  waste  and  folly  of  idle  lands,  and  the 
heavy  penalties  of  allowing  essential  industries,  such  as 
aniline  dyes,  electrical  machinery  (particularly  dynamos  and 
magnetos),  optical  glasses,  etc.,  to  pass  under  foreign 
domination,  the  time  is  opportune  for  the  survey  and  reform 
of  our  industrial  system.  Stern  necessity  has  brought  into 
existence  a  number  of  factories  for  the  creation  of  muni- 
tions of  war.  Reflection  on  the  speed  and  efficiency  of 
their  erection  and  equipment,  in  comparison  with  older 
methods,  amply  proves  that  when  necessity  dictates  and  the 
purpose  is  defined  British  brains  can  project  and  act  as 
swiftly  and  scientifically  as  any.  While  these  factories  are 
furnishing  weapons  of  war,  should  not  their  capacity  for 
turning  out  the  munitions  of  peace  be  considered?  Agri- 
cultural and  all  kinds  of  machinery  used  in  manufacturing 
industries  will  be  in  great  demand  after  the  war.  By 
adapting  these  works  to  the  need  and  stimulus  of  general 
industry  the  State  has  an  exceptional  opportunity  of  associa- 
tion in  a  great  national  trade  revival.  Careful  planning 
will  be  necessary  to  rehabilitate  the  nation  from  the  ravages 
of  war  ;  therefore  we  should  prepare  for  peace  as 
thoroughly  as  the   enemy  prepared   for   war. 

It  seems  inevitable  that  wherever  the  question  of  future 


i68  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

trade  conditions  is  canvassed  fiscal  controversies  should  be 
aroused.  These  cannot  be  evaded.  But  it  is  desirable 
that  principles  of  trade  should  be  reviewed  dispassionately 
and  detached  from  past  political  struggles.  Nearly  every 
one  believes  that  reversion  to  pre-war  conditions  cannot  be 
exactly  effected,  and  that  this  and  many  other  questions 
have  to  be  studied  and  adapted  to  changed  circumstances. 
Yet  without  adhering  slavishly  to  the  past,  it  is  unwise 
to  rashly  embrace  grandiose  proposals  which  may  bring 
hurt  and  not  benefit.  The  only  safe  course  is  to  consider 
fiscal  principles  in  the  broadest  sense,  with  a  sole  regard 
to  the  interests  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  Attempts  on 
the  part  of  interested  groups  to  manoeuvre  Parliament 
into  setting  up  tariffs  or  other  expedients  merely  to  facili- 
tate private  profiteering  must  be  frustrated .  Equally  those 
who  claim  that  the  war  makes  no  difference  and  that  change 
should  neither  be  considered  or  made  must  be  resisted. 
In  the  life  of  nations  as  of  individuals  great  crises  emerge, 
calling  for  a  thorough  investigation  into  methods  and 
practices.  Unquestionably  the  present  is  a  crisis  in  the 
history  of  British  trade.  Inefficiency  and  supineness  had 
permitted  German  policy  to  worm  itself  quite  into  our 
economic  vitals,  to  the  extent  of  menacing  the  State.  Con- 
siderations of  safety  and  national  integrity,  let  alone  self- 
respect,  require  that  this  be  changed  at  once  and  for  all 
time.  British  trade,  commerce,  and  finance  must  be 
brought  imder,  and  remain  under,  British  control,  and  if 
fiscal  change  is  necessary  to  insure  it,  then  we  should  not 
shrink  from  making  it. 

Vital  industries  must  be  fully  developed  and  kept  from 
outside  control.  When  war  came  no  great  country  was 
less  self-contained  in  the  essentials  of  her  existence.  The 
State  has  now  invested  capital  and  undertaken  to  assist 
in  promoting  the  manufacture  of  dyes.  Surely  it  cannot 
tolerate  the  undermining  of  this  venture  from  without.  Until 
this  industry  has  had  a  chance  of  full  development  the 
State  is  entitled  to  regulate  imports  accordingly.  This 
might  take  the  form  of  limiting  imports  to  supplying  any 
deficiency  in  national  requirements.  Again,  an  increased 
wheat  production  is  desirable  from  the  standpoint  of  national 
safety,  and  is  fundamental  to  a  revived  agriculture.  By  the 
guarantee  to  farmers  of  a  price  for  wheat  and  oats  a  depar- 
ture from  fiscal  practice  is  accomplished,  but  which  if 
successful  will  be  beneficial  nationally.     A  sugar-beet  in- 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    LABOUR  169 

dustry,  too,  would  aid  rural  development,  and  give  the  nation 
a  more  complete  control  of  supplies  and  prices.  If  the  State 
embarked  upon  the  manufacture  of  sugar  either  directly 
or  in  co-operation  with  others,  its  fiscal  system  would  have 
to  be  adapted  to  promoting  that  home  industry.  Many 
working-class  consumers  are  rightly  suspicious  lest  fiscal 
change  result  in  advancing  the  cost  of  living  and  depre- 
ciating the  value  of  wages.  But  this  is  not  inevitable. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  case  of  wheat.  The  State  might 
constitute  itself  an  exclusive  importer,  purchasing  at  world - 
prices  and  arranging  its  distribution.  Moreover,  in  a 
properly  graded  income-tax  and  the  excess  profits-tax  the 
State  has  additional  devices  for  protecting  the  people  from 
rapacious  interests.  These  suggestions  are  neither  con- 
cerned with  orthodox  Free  Trade  or  Protection,  being 
designed  simply  to  show  that  modifications  of  our  fiscal 
system  may  serve  to  open  up  avenues  of  trade  and  employ- 
ment, and  so  contribute  to  the  general  good.  Even  so, 
the  ultimate  test  of  British  industry  will  abide  in  the 
character  and  efficiency  of  our  industrialists,  and  not  in 
fiscal  adjustments. 

In  writing  this  chapter  I  have  sought  to  confine  myself 
to  the  subject  of  the  book,  and  to  deal  with  realities  rather 
than  ideals  :  this,  though,  believing  what  is  here  set  forth 
will  help  towards  a  better  and  purer  state  of  society.  Whilst 
strongly  imbued  with  idealism,  one  must  never  forget  the 
tremendous  distance  that  divides  what  is  and  what  ideals 
lead  us  to  think  should  be.  My  immediate  purpose  is  to 
endow  all  with  what  Gibbon  described  as  the  trinity  of 
greatness  :  "A  head  to  contrive,  a  heart  to  resolve,  and 
a  hand  to  execute."  That  achieved,  they  will  be  proved 
capable  and  worthy  of  sublimer  things. 


CHAPTER    X 

The  Relations  between  Capital  and 
Labour 

//.     THE  STANDPOINT  OF  CAPITAL 

By  sir   benjamin   C  BROWNE  ' 

I  HAVE  been  asked  by  Mr.  Dawson  to  deal  with  this 
question,  and  he  told  me  at  the  same  time  that  the  same 
subject  was  being  dealt  with  by  Mr.  G.  H.  Roberts,  M.P., 
from  the  point  of  view  of  Labour.  Mr.  Roberts  has  kindly 
allowed  me  to  see  the  draft  of  his  paper,  and  I  only 
hope  that  I  may  be  able  to  deal  with  it  from  the  capitalist's 
point  of  view  as  well  and  as  clearly  as  he  has  dealt  with 
it  from  that  of  the  workmen.  Substantially  it  appears 
to  be,  what  has  always  been  my  view,  that  the  interests  of 
capital  and  labour  are  in  the  main  identical ;  that  they 
ought  to  unite  to  make  their  trade  as  strong  and  as 
prosperous  as  possible,  and,  having  done  that,  the  exact 
proportion  in  which  the  profits  are  to  be  divided  between 
them  is  a  comparatively  small  matter  compared  to  that  of 
making  the  total  amount  to  be  divided  as  large  as  possible. 
But  before  going  into  details  I  will  touch  on  a  few 
preliminary  principles. 

As  I  understand  it,  our  object  is  to  think  how,  firstly, 
to  restore  things  to  a  prosperous  and  normal  condition  after 
the  war  is  over  ;  and,  secondly,  to  consider  whether  we 
can  take  advantage  of  what  we  may  call  this  great  revolu- 
tion in  order  to  bring  about  an  altogether  better  state  of 
things.     Of  course,  when  we  come  to  detail,  a  great  deal 

'  The  writer  of  this  chapter,  who  will  long  be  remembered  not  only  as  one 
of  the  pioneers  of  industry  on  the  north-east  coast  of  England,  but  as  a  warm 
friend  of  labour  and  an  earnest  worker  in  the  cause  of  industrial  peace,  died 
on  March  ist  of  the  present  year,  while  this  book  was  in  the  press. — Thb  Editok 

170 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  171 

must  depend  on  the  terms  on  which  the  war  finishes,  and 
how  soon  that  event  happens,  and  on  these  points  we  can 
at  present  say  nothing  ;  but  we  have  three  points  that  we 
can  consider  : 

{a)  What  was   the   position  of   capital   and  labour 
before  the  war  ? 

{b)   What  is  the  position  during  the  war? 

(c)  What  will  it  be  when  the  war  is  over  ? 
There  is  no  doubt  that  before  the  war  the  relations 
between  capital  and  labour  were  most  unsatisfactory — far 
more  so  than  they  are  normally  ;  there  seemed  to  be 
deep  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  most  of  the  working 
classes  that  they  were  not  getting  such  large  incomes  as 
they  ought  to  get  ;  and  this  dissatisfaction  was  aggra- 
vated very  much  by  the  rise  in  prices  which  had  been 
going  on  for  some  years.  The  general  public  seem  to 
focus  their  ideas  of  improvement  into  the  question  of 
whether  it  is  possible  to  get  wages  up  to  a  substantially 
higher  figure  than  what  they  were  before  the  war,  without, 
of  course,  throwing  men  out  of  work. 

My  own  impression  is  that  a  very  much  improved  state 
of  things  might  be  brought  about  if  we  and  our  work- 
men were  to  pull  together  instead  of  quarrelling.  I  should 
say  that  the  state  of  feeling  between  capital  and  labour 
just  before  the  war  was  pretty  nearly  as  bad  as  it  could 
be.  There  had  been  an  enormous  amount  of  restriction 
of  output,  and  there  was  a  very  strong  feeling  of  hostility 
between  the  two  classes.  This  was  not  shown  so  much 
in  the  workshops,  nor  yet  at  the  meetings  of  employers 
and  workmen,  as  in  the  newspapers  and  in  public  life — 
especially  in  politics.  Up  to  the  end  of  the  century  I  do 
not  think  this  had  been  nearly  so  bad,  but  things  changed 
for  the  worse  rapidly  after  1900,  owingj,  I  think,  very  much 
to  the  baleful  influence  of  politics. 

I  find  that  we  employers  go  to  London,  York,  Man- 
chester, Sheffield,  or  any  other  large  town  ;  we  there  meet 
with  the  Trade  Union  leaders  ;  we  have  long  talks  and 
discussions,  and,  in  the  main,  we  get  things  thrashed  out 
and  settled  on  a  fair  and  reasonable  basis  :  but  then  there 
is  probably  no  man  in  the  room  who  has  not  had  con- 
siderable practical  experience  of  the  inside  of  a  work- 
shop and  of  how  to  deal  with  the  majority  of  these 
questions. 

When  the  war  came  on  what  struck  us  all  at  once  was 


172  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

the  very  serious  difference  betwfeen  the  cordial  affection 
that  existed  between  the  officers  and  men  in  our  armies 
in  the  field  and  the  hostility  that  appeared  to  exist  between 
capital  and  labour  in  the  workshop  at  home  :  and  yet, 
roughly  speaking,  the  officers  very  much  represent  the  class 
of  men  who  are  the  employers  at  home.  I  believe  that 
the  way  the  officers  and  soldiers  trust  each  other  is  based 
upon  a  thorough  practical  understanding  of  each  other's 
merits,  and  that  the  hostility  between  capital  and  labour 
in  the  workshop  is  the  bad  thing  that  ought  to  be  altered 
and  put  on  the  same  footing  as  the  loyalty  that  exists  on 
the  battlefield. 

I  believe  myself  that  you  can  never  get  good  work 
out  of  any  body  of  men  unless  they  like  and  trust  their 
leaders.  The  workman  ought  to  feel  confident  that  his 
employer  will  pay  him  as  much  as  he  can  and  do  all  he 
can  for  his  comfort  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  employer 
ought  to  feel  towards  his  workmen  exactly  as  parents  feel 
towards  their   children. 

Personally,  I  should  say  that  kindly  feeling  between 
capital  and  labour  has  been  very  much  discouraged  of 
recent  years,  especially  by  the  interference  of  people  who 
know  nothing  of  the  circumstances.  It  is  so  easy  for 
some  great  philanthropist  to  get  up  and  say  that  obviously 
the  employers  ought  to  give  their  men  a  larger  share  of 
the  profits,  but  I  find  that  hardly  one  of  the  many  and 
great  men,  whether  statesmen,  University  men,  clergy- 
men, or  others,  can  really  justify  this  apparent  platitude 
if  he  is  cross-examined.  The  question  is,  Where  is  the 
money  to  come  from  ?  If  it  can  be  shown  that  employers 
are  making  very  large  profits,  then  it  is  natural  for  the 
workmen  to  expect  more  money.  Now,  in  the  case  of  a 
gas  or  water  company,  where  the  amount  of  capital 
employed  per  workman  is  very  large,  a  small  .sacrifice  of 
profit  on  the  part  of  capital  may  do  something  very  hand- 
some towards  increasing  the  return  on  labour.  Suppose 
you  assume  that  in  a  certain  business  there  is  £i,ooo  of 
capital  for  every  workman  employed  and  that  each  work- 
man gets  £ioo  a  year  income  ;  that  is  a  very  different 
state  of  affairs  to  where  there  is  only  £ioo  of  capital  per 
man  employed,  and  sometimes  a  great  deal  less. 

One  very  great  change  that  has  taken  place  in  recent 
years  is  that  there  are  a  few  firms  that  make  very  large 
returns  upon  their  capital,  and  a  very  large  number  who 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  173 

make  very  small  ones  or  none  at  all  ;  and  the  latter  are 
apt  to  die  down  very  rapidly. 

Now,  before  the  war,  engineering  and  shipbuilding  were 
very  busy,  really  owing  to  the  fact  that  people  who  knew 
what  was  going  on  were  very  much  expecting  the  war, 
and  that  the  Admiralty  and  private  owners  were  increasing 
their  fleets  very  decidedly.  But  when  we  look  at  the  case 
of  profits  what  do  we  see?  War  was  declared  on 
August  4,  1914,  and  1  have  before  me  a  return  published 
by  Fair  play  in  August  1913,  one  year  before,  which  gives 
a  list  of  sixteen  really  important  shipbuilding  and  marine 
engine -building  firms,  and  shows  what  they  did.  Now, 
in  1913  war  was  not  generally  looked  upon  as  imminent, 
though  no  doubt  people  who  studied  the  question  care- 
fully had  a  good  deal  of  anxiety  ;  but  we  find  that  out 
of  sixteen  companies  in  1909-10  seven  were  paying  nothing 
at  all,  and,  speaking  generally,  those  that  did  pay  were 
not  paying  more  than  5  per  cent,  average.  If  any  one 
likes  to  take  the  trouble  to  go  through  the  figures  of  the 
"  Stock  Exchange  Year  Book,"  which  is  a  very  easy  thing 
to  do,  he  will  find  that,  on  an  average,  the  profits  on 
engineering  and  shipbuilding  works  do  not  exceed  this. 
If  one  works  pays  10  per  cent,  and  another  pays  nothing, 
the  one  that  pays  nothing  probably  becomes  'bankrupt  : 
therefore,  you  have  to  consider  not  what  is  a  sufficient 
average  amount  of  pay  for  the  trade  as  a  whole,  but  what 
will  become  of  the  weak  firms  if  the  shareholders  giet 
no  return  on  the  capital.  I  should  say  that  in  191 3-14 
some  of  the  firms  in  engineering  and  shipbuilding  were 
in  a  more  or  less  serious  state,  while  others  were  doing 
very  well  ;  but,  then,  you  obviously  cannot  get  those  firms 
that  are  paying  large  dividends  to  subscribe  to  help  those 
that  are  simply  going  down  altogether,  in  which  their  men 
are  thrown  out  of  work,  and  therefore  there  is  the  danger 
of  the  workman  losing  a  great  deal  if  the  profits  are 
cut  down  too  much  ;  in  fact,  very  often  this  is  the  reason 
of  his  being  thrown  out  of  work  altogether. 

When  I  came  to  Newcastle  as  an  employer,  in  1870, 
I  had  occasion  to  meet  all  the  engineering  employers  of 
Newcastle  and  Gateshead.  I  have  kept  an  account  of  the 
subsequent  history  of  these  businesses,  and  I  find  that  two- 
thirds  of  them  perished  disastrously.  I  think  of  the  twelve 
firms  four  still  stand  and  prosper,  but  eight  have  closed, 
and    they    have    neither    been    absorbed    nor    amalgamated. 


174  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY, 

Again,  in  1870,  the  Admiralty  bought  all  their  important 
marine  engines  from  four  firms  in  London — Maudslay  & 
Field,  Penn  Miller  &  Ravenhill,  and  Humphry  & 
Tenant.  Where  are  all  these  four  firms  now?  Gone, 
and  I  am  not  aware  that  they  even  left  any  retired 
millionaires  to   represent   their  past   work. 

When  the  Great  Western  Railway  Company  bought  up 
the  Bristol  and  Exeter,  South  Devon,  and  Cornish  Rail- 
ways, it  took  to  making  all  the  machinery  that  those 
railways  required  at  its  own  works  at  Swindon,  and  the 
consequence  was  that  the  works  in  that  district  which  had 
lived  on  supplying  those  three  railways  also  went  out  of 
existence.  This  is  an  example  of  how  great  the  risks 
of  the  trade  are,  and  why  manufacturing,  as  an  invest- 
ment, is  less  and  less  popular. 

Profit-sharing  is  often  advocated  by  amateurs,  but,  off 
and  on,  through  one  firm  and  another,  I  and  others  have 
been  constantly  offering  to  give  the  men  a  share  of  thej 
profits  in  different  businesses,  but  they  never  seem  the 
least  keen  about  taking  the  offer  ;  and  I  am  inclined  to 
think  they  are  right.  I  think  they  would  lose  more  by 
the  complication  than  they  would  gain  by  the  profit.  In 
an  average  engine  works  there  is  £150  of  capital,  or 
thereabouts,  per  workman,  and  taking  the  average  of 
mechanics,  labourers,  and  apprentices,  the  average  pay  is 
about  30s.  per  week.  Now,  assuming  that  the  works  pay, 
one  with  another,  5  per  cent.,  that  means  that  the  company 
gets  £7  IDS.  per  annum  profit  per  man  employed.  But 
30s.  a  week  is  £75  a  year,  so  that  capital  gets,  in  the 
form  of  dividends,  one-tenth  part  of  what  it  pays  in  wages. 

I  think  I  have  had  as  much  to  do  with  starting  works 
as  most  people,  and  I  always  consider  myself  that  if  you 
can  rely  upon  dividing  an  amount  equal  to  one -tenth  part 
of  what  you  pay  in  wages  that  is  just  about  what  you 
can  go  on  at  :  at  that  point  you  are  neither  making  nor 
losing  money.  If  you  do  better,  well  and  good  ;  but  if 
you  do  worse  you  must  look  out  for  yourself  very  care- 
fully. But  what,  of  course,  I  should  hope  to  see  would 
be,  if  we  could  make  a  fair  start  and  give  the  men  a 
share  in  the  profits,  that  the  actual  profits  should  be  far 
larger  than  they  are  now,  and  then  labour  might  really 
get  more  than  it  is  doing  at  present. 

I  think  it  may  also  help  our  investigation  if  now  I 
make  a   rough   forecast  of  what   seems   likely  to   be  the 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  175 

state  of  things  when  the  war  comes  to  an  end,  and,  as 
far  as  we  can  guess,  what  is  likely  to  be  the  future  of 
trade,  both  immediately  and  (which  is  quite  another  thing) 
permanently,  after  the  war. 

1  should  say  that  the  vicissitudes  that  followed  on  the 
Franco -German  War  and  in  other  cases  all  show  that  where 
the  employer  was  a  man  of  real  energy  and  adaptive  spirit, 
and,  above  all,  where  he  had  a  sufficient  command  of 
free  capital  and  was  not  too  much  bound  up  with  other 
people,  he  usually  survived  the  storm  and  came  out  more 
prosperous  than  ever,  many  of  his  competitors  having  suc- 
cumbed to  the  disastrous  times.  After  the  Franco -German 
W^r  prices  for  coals  and  locomotive  engines  rose,  but 
not  instantly  :  it  was  a  few  months  before  the  effect  was 
actually  felt,  and  it  seems  to  mc  the  key  to  the  position 
was  that  ultimately  nearly  all  the  world's  energy  was  put 
into  repairing  the  damage  done  by  the  war,  making  up 
for  all  the  work  that  had  not  been  done  and  providing 
for  the   changed   conditions. 

I  should  think,  after  this  war,  the  amount  of  work  to 
be  done  in  the  way  of  replacement  and  renewal  of  not 
only  railways  but  pretty  nearly  everything  else  will  be 
enormous.  Everybody  has  worn  out  everything  he  has 
got,  and  will  want  new  and  better  things  directly  he 
can  afford  to  pay  for  them.  Of  course,  it  is  conceivable 
that  things  may  go  too  far  for  this  to  be  effective  for 
some  time.  I  remember  at  one  time  during  the  Franco - 
German  War  discussing  with  some  Germans  the  effect  that 
its  wars  had  had  on  Germany  :  they  nearly  all  insisted  that 
hardly  any  History  made  enough  of  the  sufferings  rwhich  had 
been  caused  thereby,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  ;  and  this  has  been  brought  out  very  fully 
by  Archbishop  Trench  :  the  annihilation — for  we  can  call 
it  nothing  else — of  civilization  in  many  districts,  and  the 
utter  ruin  of  enormous  numbers  of  people,  were  things 
of  which  we  earnestly  hope  we  shall  never  see  any  signs 
again.  But  I  can  certainly  remember  Germans,  who  knew 
very  well  what  they  were  talking  about,  saying  to  me 
that  Germany  had  not  got  over  the  effect  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  before  the  Napoleonic  Wars  came,  and  that 
Germany  had  not  got  over  the  effect  of  these  when  the 
Franco -German  War  came. 

But,  now,  to  apply  this  to  our  own  case.  If  we  can 
imagine  the  war  ceasing  within  any  reasonable  time,  one 


176  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

would  fancy  it  would  take  a  good  time  to  disband  all 
the  armies,  and  that,  if  care  is  taken,  a  large  majority  of 
the  people,  men  and  women,  should  get  back  their  work 
without  so  much  difficulty  as  the  public  seem  to  fancy. 
When  all  is  said  and  done,  the  world  is  enormously  in 
arrears  as  to  the  supply  of  its  wants,  and  there  will  be 
far  fewer  people  to  supply  them  than  there  would  have 
been  had  trade  been  going  on  normally  for  the  last  three 
years. 

I  cannot  help  thinking  that  people  exaggerate  the  talk 
of  trade  going  to  Germany.  When  you  take  the  average 
number  of  unemployed  in  England,  if  we  conceive  them 
all  set  to  work  profitably,  it  would  show  something  like 
the  total  extra  amount  of  work  that  we  could  take  in  this 
country  ;  but  the  whole  amount  of  extra  work  would  be 
a  mere  ilea -bite  compared  to  the  work  that  is  turned  out 
by  countries  like  Germany,  and  though  no  doubt  our 
Colonies  wiU,  by  degrees,  all  be  enormously  developed, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  they  will  develop  as  con- 
sumers quite  as  fast,  if  not  faster,  than  they  will  develop 
as  producers.  There  is  no  doubt  our  feeling  at  present 
is,  and  probably  very  properly  is,  very  bitter  indeed  against 
Germany,  but  it  is  no  use  to  say  more  than  what  is  true  ; 
and  really  I  doubt  if  Germany,  as  a  whole,  has  done  very 
much  more  to  injure  our  trade  than  other  countries  with 
which  we  have  not,  and  must  not  have,  any  quarrel,  such 
as  Belgium  and  Switzerland.  We  all  remember  that  for 
years  Belgium  had  practically  a  monopoly  of  the  steel 
girders  that  are  so  much  used  in  building  houses.  Switzer- 
land got  a  monopoly  of  clock  work  before  any  of  us 
were  born  and  has  kept  it  firmly  ever  since — and  no  blame 
to  her,  as  she  has  probably  done  the  work  better  and 
cheaper  than  other  people.  It  is  easy  to  find  certain 
Germans  who  have  done  dishonourable  things  and  who 
have  schemed  and  organized  in  a  way  that  was  not  fair  ; 
but  may  not  the  same  be  said  sometimes  of  other  coun- 
tries? I  believe  we  can  find  cases  where  English  and 
German  manufacturers  have  combined  together  to  keep  up 
prices  artificially.  It  is  commonly  considered,  I  believe, 
that  the  price  of  ship -plates  would  have  been  raised 
artificially  very  much  higher  in  this  country  had  it  not 
been  that  they  were  limited  by  the  price  at  which  Germans 
could  deliver  the  same  plates  by  sea. 

Now,  it  will  not  do  the  working  classes  any  goo(i  if  we 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  177 

simply  do  work  at  home  which  might  be  done  more 
cheaply  abroad,  doing  perhaps  less  of  it,  if  the  surplus 
profits  are  all  to  go  into  the  pockets  of  the  manufac- 
turer. And  one  can,  in  one's  lifetime,  think  of  numbers 
of  cases  where  things  which  were  the  monopoly  of  some 
foreigner  have  been  captured  and  taken  over  by  the 
English.  Of  course,  sometimes  it  is  the  reverse.  The 
fact  is  that  in  these  days  of  cheap  carriage  the  question 
of  where  a  thing  is  made  is  of  comparatively  small  im- 
portance compared  with  what  facilities  there  are  for  making 
it.  I  remember  some  years  ago  our  getting  our  first  lot 
of  twist  drills  from  America,  and  when  we  first  got  band- 
saws  for  cutting  iron  and  steel  we  got  them  from  France  ; 
but  very  soon  England  could  produce  all  these  perfectly 
well,  and  as  cheaply.  When  steel  wheel  centres  for  loco- 
motives came  in  first  we  got  them  nearly  all  from  Germany, 
but  that  was  also  a  very  transient  state  of  things. 

Of  course,  it  is  quite  possible  that  after  the  war  we 
cannot  leave  things  to  their  natural  development  in  the 
way  we  could  have  done  had  there  been  peace  :  it  may 
be  necessary  to  spend  trouble  and  money  to  foster  and 
create  industries  in  some  places  ;  but  that  is  quite  a 
different  thing  from  saying  that  the  whole  of  our  past 
policy  was  wrong.  When  all  is  said  and  done,  I  must 
say  I  like,  as  far  as  possible,  to  let  every  individual — 
whether  a  man  or  a  company — develop  his  own  trade  in 
the  best  way  that  he  can  and  leave  other  people  to  do 
the  same.  I  have  heard  Sir  Graham  Berry,  who  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  greatest  Protectionist  Prime  Minister 
•in  Victoria,  speaking  on  the  question  of  nursing  up  young 
trades  in  a  new  colony,  and  I  quite  felt  that  he  made 
out  as  good  a  case  as  people  do  for  feeding  a  baby  in 
the  sure  hope  that  some  day  it  will  become  a  useful  man 
or  woman.  But  1  well  remember  him  saying  :  "  I  do  not 
advocate  Protection  as  a  universal  principle,  but  I  say  that 
Protection  is  the  right  policy  for  the  Colony  of  Victoria 
to-day  :  whether  it  is  the  right  policy  for  England  now, 
or  for  Victoria  to-morrow,  is  a  point  that  I  am  not  dis- 
cussing." And  there  is  no  doubt  that  when  the  world  is 
all  out  of  joint,  as  it  must  be  after  a  war  like  the  present 
one,  we  may  have  to  adopt,  in  certain  cases,  special 
measures  which  we  should  not  be  at  all  wise  to  look 
upon  as    permanent    institutions. 

There  are   other   causes   which   I   think   have   conduced,* 


178  NATIONAL   EFFICIENCY. 

perhaps  unintentionally,  more  than  most  people  would  think 
to  the  bad  feeling  to  which  we  have  referred.  One  of 
these  is  that,  both  among  employers  and  the  workmen, 
the  Trade  Unions  and  Employers*  Associations  have  taken 
to  interfering  in  detail  more  than  is  wise.  I  have  always 
held,  as  regards  employers  (and  exactly  the  same  principle 
would  apply  to  workmen's  Trade  Unions),  that  these  bodies 
were  formed  for  defence,  and  not  for  aggression,  and  to 
support  the  individual,  not  to  tie  his  hands.  For  example, 
I  always  held  that  if  an  employer  came  to  us  and  said, 
"  My  men  insist  that  I  should  give  them  more  wage  than 
is  usual  in  the  trade,  and  more  than  I  can  afford,"  it  would 
be  for  us,  as  an  Association,  to  take  up  his  case,  to  see 
the  men,  and  give  our  member  our  support  to  whatever 
extent  was  just  and  fair  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  suppose 
an  employer  thought  that  it  would  pay  him  to  turn  out 
super -excellent  machinery  for  which  he  required  specially 
good  labour  and  therefore  he  began  to  pay  his  men  excep- 
tionally high  wages,  I  do  not  think  his  brother  employers 
should  interfere  with  him. 

I  remember  when  we  first  took  up  Admiralty  work  on 
the  Tyne  we  had  in  a  great  many  ways  to  improve  our 
standards  to  something  better  than  we  were  used  to,  and  in 
picking  our  men  we  probably  increased  our  average  rate 
of  wage  ;  but  nobody  interfered  with  us,  and  I  think 
that  was  quite  right.  If  we  made  a  success  of  it,  other 
employers  would  copy  us  ;  if  we  made  a  failure  and  burnt 
our  fingers,  we  had  only  ourselves  to  thank.  Similarly, 
I  do  not  agree  that  any  one  ought  to  interfere  with  the 
workman  if  he  deliberately  chooses  to  take  an  easy  job 
at  a  low  rate.  If  the  workman  goes  to  the  Union  and 
says  his  employer  is  pressing  him  to  work  at  a  lower 
wage  than  is  fair,  then  by  all  means  let  the  Union  take 
the  part  of  that  member  and  support  him  and  get  him 
what  is  just  and  right  :  but,  to  take  an  obvious  case, 
suppose  the  Amalgamated  Engineers  were  getting  35s.  a 
week  ;  a  man  is  offered  a  job  as  chauffeur  to  a  doctor  and 
he  takes  it  at  35s.  and  nobody  objects  ;  but  another  man 
is  offered  a  job  as  a  chauffeur  to  an  old  lady,  where  the 
work  is  not  half  as  hard  and  where  he  will  get  a  great 
deal  of  time  to  himself,  and  if  he,  being  either  delicate 
or  a  lazy  man,  likes  to  take  this  job  at  a  lower  rate  I  do 
not  think  the  Union  ought  to  prevent  him,  because  the 
services  he  is  giving  are  worth  a  great  deal  less  than  thd 


THJE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  17^ 

normal  so  the  wage  ought  to  be  less,  and  he  is  not  really 
tending  in  any  way  to  bring  down  the  wages  of  his  fellow- 
men.  When  I  was  chairman  of  an  Employers'  Associa- 
tion my  feeling  always  was  to  let  an  employer  feel  that 
he  had  our  support  in  whatever  was  right  and  proper, 
but  that  he  should  ask  for  it  ;  and  if  neither  he  nor  his 
men  complained  of  the  existing  state  of  affairs  I  was  always 
very  slow  in  interfering  with  it  merely  because  some  third 
man,  whether  an  employer  or  not,  complained. 

People  often  talk  as  if  high  wages  mean  dear  labour  : 
this  is  not  in  the  least  the  case.  A  common  statement 
that  I  have  often  made  is  that  a  navvy,  who  gets  higher 
wages,  can  dig  a  hole  cheaper  and  more  quickly  than 
an  ordinary  labourer  who  gets  a  lower  rate  of  pay,  and 
probably  he  is  far  less  tired  at  the  end  of  the  work. 
Even  where  it  is  all  a  question  of  hand  labour  and  no 
machine,  the  quantity  of  work  done  depends  far  more  on 
the  amount  of  brains  that  are  brought  to  bear  upon  it 
than  upon  the  actual  muscular  exertion  of  the  men.  In 
the  same  way,  there  is  no  necessary  connection  between 
long  hours  and  a  large  output  :  the  most  economical  time 
for  a  man  to  work  is  that  at  which  he  can  keep  himself 
going  for  an  indefinitely  long  period  without  any  deteriora- 
tion in  the  quality  of  his  work  or  any  undue  fatigue. 
In  old  times  I  remember  in  factories  when  the  ordinary 
workman  left  work  at  six  in  the  evening,  the  boiler -yard 
piece  men  left  at  five,  but  the  chainmakers,  whose  work 
was  supposed  to  be  the  hardest  of  all,  left  at  four,  it 
being  supposed  that  by  those  times  the  men  had  done  as 
much  as  was  permanently  prudent. 

To  take  another  point,  when  the  war  came  on  a  different 
state  of  things  was  brought  about  to  what,  had  prevailed 
before.  I  believe  there  is  a  general  feeling  among  work- 
men that  employers,  on  account  of  the  war,  began  to 
make  enormous  profits  :  I  should  think  it  very  probable 
that  in  some  cases  they  did  so,  but  it  is  very  hard  indeed 
to  say  at  present.  After  this  war  there  must  be  a  vast 
amount  of  machinery  which  has  been  put  up  for  making 
munitions  and  which  will  never  be  wanted  again  ;  and  it 
may  easily  be  a  question  whether  the  employers  are  able  to 
cover  the  cost  of  this  before  it  is  superseded  and  useless. 

It  is  much  more  difficult  to  point  out  any  definite  pro- 
gramme for  capital  than  it  is  for  labour,  because  its  position 
is   much    more    complicated.      Labour    only    cominunicates 


i8o  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

with  the  customer,  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  the  people 
who  supply  the  material,  on  the  other,  through  the 
employer.  The  capitalist  is  expected  to  not  only  lind  the 
works  and  the  money,  but  also  to  get  the  orders,  buy 
the  material  ;  and,  in  fact,  without  him  there  would  be 
no  trade  at  all.  This  is  not  satisfactory,  but  it  is  so  ; 
and  therefore,  in  legislating  about  him  or  his  trade,  we 
must  bear  it  in  mind. 

I  question  if  it  really  is  practicable,  or  desirable,  to 
legislate  for  the  benefit  of  one  complete  class,  such  as 
employers,  and  to  devise  laws  which  will  have  a  uniform 
effect  on  them  all,  large  and  small,  rich  and  poor. 

Suppose  that  for  any  purpose  you  want  to  bring  a  strong 
pressure  to  bear  on  a  body  of  employers.  At  first  they 
all  suff^er,  but  not  equally  ;  gradually  some,  and  then  more 
and  more,  are  crushed  out  of  existence.  And  now  see  how 
this  works.  Those  that  are  poorest  will  be  ruined  ;  all 
their  workmen  will  be  thrown  out  of  work  and  will  have 
to  seek  employment  at  the  gates  of  the  employers  who 
survive.  The  customers  of  those  who  are  gone  liave  also 
to  seek  to  get  their  orders  executed  from  these  same 
survivors.  So,  while  the  poor  employer  is  ruined,  the 
rich  employer  gets  more,  and  therefore  cheajyer,  labour 
and  more  orders,  and  therefore  higher  prices. 

Nothing  enables  a  man  to  face  the  unexpected,  or  to 
survive  long  periods  of  trouble,  like  a  long  purse.  The 
poor  man  is  ruined  ;  the  rich  man  waits  patiently  and 
then  emerges  to  face  reduced  competition.  Drastic  changes 
in  the  law,  unexpected  strikes,  and  all  other  sudden  and 
violent  measures  have  this  effect,  and  whatever  may  be 
the  intention  of  the  ardent  reformer,  the  practical  effect 
of  his  action  generally  is  to  make  rich  men  richer  and 
poor  men  poorer. 

The  employers  do  not  wish  to  be  specially  favoured, 
but  recent  legislation  has  most  pointedly  disregarded  their 
interests,  and,  in  doing  so,  has,  I  think,  very  seriously 
injured  both  the  trade  of  the  country  and,  above  all,  the 
interests  of  the  working  classes.  The  Workmen's  Com- 
pensation Act  was  drawn  so  as  to  hit  the  small  employer 
very  hard  :  so  were  those  mischievous  laws  encouraging 
strikes  (and  they  benefited  nobody)  ;  and  there  were  many 
others . 

I  think  the  decline  of  the  small  employer  is  a 
national  calamity.     I  do  not  think  that  those  of  us  who 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  i8i 

have  large  works  really  suffer  much  from  the  bad  legisla- 
tion :  it  means  that  there  are  fewer  of  us,  more  customers 
and  more  workmen  ;  and  the  customers  and  workmen  can- 
not get  at  each  other  except  through  us.  But  I  think  that 
for  the  good  of  the  country  the  small  employer  ought  to 
be  encouraged  in  every  way:  at  present  his  burdens  are 
greater  than  he  can  bear  ;  his  risk  of  being  ruined 
has  been  enormously  increased  ;  and  you  can  no  more 
expect  to  have  large  employers  without  encouraging  small 
ones  than  you  can  expect  to  have  grown-up  people  if  you 
let  all  the  children  die.  And  it  cannot  be  much  use  to 
prohibit  the  importation  of  foreign  manufactures  unless  you 
have  Englishmen  with  leisure,  ability,  and  capital  ready  to 
take  up  the  work,  and  such  men  appear  to  be  getting 
scarcer  and  scarcer.  Probably  Government  employment 
ought  to  be  increased  in  some  directions,  because  the 
number  of  employers  is  becoming  dangerously  small  for 
the  good  of  the  country.  To  study  an  economic  question 
it  is  always  wise  just  to  consider  how  the  principle  would 
work  in  an  extreme  case.  So  let  us  suppose  that  in  some 
industry  there  was  only  one  employer,  who  had  a  imonopoly  : 
all  the  workpeople  and  all  the  customers  would  be  at  his 
mercy.  But,  one  way  or  another,  as  long  as  the  working 
classes  live  by  wages,  we  must  somehow  keep  up  a 
sufficient  supply   of  employers. 

Now,  having  laid  down  the  doctrine  that  the  interests 
of  the  employers  and  workmen  are  identical  and  that 
employers  are  to  be  looked  on  as  the  officers  of  the  indus- 
trial army,  we  must  try  and  sketch  out  what  would  be 
an  ideal  state  of  things  to  attain  to  after  the  war. 

I  assume  that  full  attention  has  been  given  to  the 
energetic  development  of  our  Colonies,  and  also  to  con- 
sidering the  supply  of  those  things  for  which,  being 
necessary  for  our  existence,  we  ought  not  to  be  wholly 
dependent  on  foreign  countries. 

When  the  war  ceases,  the  first  point  will  be  to  restore 
some  millions  of  people  to  their  permanent  places  in  civil 
life.  If  the  War  Office  will  cordially  co-operate  with  the 
employers  and  the  Trade  Unions,  if  we  may  begin  to 
restore  men  to  civil  life  as  soon  as  possible,  and  if  we 
are  all  willing  to  be  a  little  patient  towards  the  end  of 
the  process  with  the  last  batches,  I  do  not  think  the  task 
will  be  at  all  superhuman.  All  these  men  and  women 
were  living  somehow  before  the  war.     There  will  be,  alas  1 


i82  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

fewer  now,  and  besides  the  regular  needs  of  the  world 
there  are  enormous  arrears  of  work  to  be  made  up.  But 
in  that,  as  in  everything  else,  much  depends  on  the  cordial 
co-operation  of  employers  and  employed. 

Then  the  two  bodies  ought  to  be  organized,  as  most  of 
them  have  been  for  some  time,  and  they  ought  to  meet 
together  on  a  footing  of  absolute  equality,  and  no  stoppage 
ought  to  be  allowed  till  every  effort  has  been  exhausted 
to  make  a  friendly  settlement.  But  legislation  ought  to 
be  the  last  resource,  and  a  very  bad  one.  Settlements 
across  a  table  are  friendly,  but  a  parliamentary  fight  means 
victory  on  one  side  and  a  defeat  on  the  other,  and  bad 
blood  on  both.  If  we  could  all  look  on  one  another  as 
members  of  the  same  family,  we  should  avoid  all  quarrels 
and  bitterness  ;  and  I  think  the  old  maxim  is  the  safest 
rule,  "  Never  win  a  victory  till  you  have  exhausted  every 
chance  of  arranging  a  compromise." 

May   I   add   one   word    for   the   employer?      Besides   the 
super -tax  the  Government  have  laid  on  him  these  burdens  : 
{a)  They    have    taken    over    his    works    as    "  Con- 
trolled Works,"  which  takes  away  almost  all  his  power 
over  his  own  property. 

{b)  They  claim  the  right  to  tax  his  profits  almost 
at  their  own  discretion. 

(c)    In   giving    orders    they    frequently    reserve    the 

right  to  cut  down  the  prices  if,  on  after  consideration, 

they  think  them  too  high. 

Now,    I    have    not    seen    or    heard    that    any    employers 

have   objected   to   any   of   these   things,   nor   will   they,      I 

believe  they  will,  as  a  class,  do  their  utmost  to  bear  any 

burden     which     the     Government     consider     that,     in     the 

national    interest,    they    ought    to    bear.      They    trust    the 

Government . 

Probably  what  has  been  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  a 
large  number  of  people  during  this  time  of  terrible  sorrow 
and  misery  has  been  the  loyalty  with  which  our  officers 
and  men  have  stood  by  each  other  and  trusted  each  other, 
both  in  the  Army  and  in  the  Navy.  Now,  these  are  just 
the  same  men  that  represent  the  employers  and  work- 
mai  in  civil  life,  and  the  question  is  to  account  for  their 
rising,  under  the  pressure  of  danger  and  calamity,  to  such 
a  much  higher  level  than  they  occupied  before.  As  far 
as  one  can  see  this  was  quite  simultaneous,  both  sides 
instinctively  joining   hands,   trusting   each   other,   and  pre- 


THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL  183 

pared  to  make  every  sacrifice,  even  of  life  itself,  for  the 
cause  for  which  they  were  fighting.  Now,  if  we  want 
really  to  investigate  questions  on  the  actions  of  human 
beings,  we  are  simply  wasting  our  time  unless  we  are  pre- 
pared to  go  boldly  down  to  the  root  of  things,  look  into 
their  hearts,  and  see  really  at  the  bottom  of  all  what  are 
the  motives  which  have  influenced  these  men,  both  for 
good  and  for  evil. 

I  think  we  must  at  onc«  face  the  fact  that,  in  the  main, 
men  have  far  more  good  in  them  than  bad,  but  that  small 
causes  will  stir  up  the  bad  while  it  requires  greater  ones 
to  bring  the  higher  and  nobler  qualities  into  action. 

There  are  especially  three  men  who  are,  I  think,  re- 
sponsible for  the  bad  state  of  thing's,  and  who  may  be 
looked  upon,  in  fact,  wherever  they  are  found,  as  the 
absolute  enemies  of  those  of  their  own  class  and  of  the 
happiness  and  prosperity  of  all  mankind.  The  first  of 
these  is  the  employer  who  tries  to  combine  artificially  to 
raise  prices  :  he  is  simply  diminishing*  the  amount  of 
trade,  and  thereby  making  less  work  for  himself  and  for 
the  workmen.  The  second  is  the  workman  who  com- 
bines artificially  to  restrict  the  output  :  he  is  doing  the 
same  thing .  Probably  both  these  men,  in  an  ignorant  and 
selfish  kind  of  way,  believe  that  they  are  doing  some  good 
to  their  own  class,  and  we  may  give  them  a  shade  of 
palliation  on  the  plea  that  they  mean  well  I  The  third  man 
is  much  worse  :  he  is  a  man  who  disbelieves  in  unselfish- 
ness, conscientiousness,  duty,  and  who,  in  fact,  thinks  that 
every  human  being  is  simply  guided  by  what  he  believes 
to  be  his  own  personal  material  interest.  It  seems  to  m'd 
that  this  principle,  carried  to  an  extreme,  is  what  has 
been  the  curse  of  what  is  called  the  German  "  Kultur." 
Some  people,  when  one  goes  to  business,  tell  one  that  no 
man  is  really  unselfish  ;  that  every  man  is  to  be  bought  ; 
that  they  have  no  faith  whatever  in  high  standards  of 
honour  and  chivalry.  Sometimes  they  go  a  step  further 
and  say  that  money  is  the  guiding  principle  of  everybody. 

Postponing  for  the  moment  this  last  question  about 
money,  and  speaking  of  the  others,  the  action  of  our 
warriors  at  the  front  simply  gives  the  lie  to  the  whole 
thing  ;  but,  more  than  that,  I  have  always  felt  myself,  in 
all  our  disputes  with  the  workmen  (and'  I  have  been  in 
plenty  of  them)  that  even  in  the  bitterest  strikes  we  were 
dealing  with  an  honourable  and  high-minded  class  of  feen, 


1 84  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

who  might  be  prejudiced,  who  might  be  bitter,  but  whose 
word  could  be  depended  upon,  and  a  large  majority  of 
whom  really  took  a  pride  in  their  work  ;  and  the  end  of 
it  has  commonly  been  that  we,  the  employers,  who  meiet 
the  Union  leaders,  usually  come  to  look  on  them  as  friends 
not  only  with  whom  we  can  negotiate  but  whom  we  can 
trust . 

As  regards  the  idea  that  money  is  such  a  dominating 
principle,  not  to  look  any  higher,  the  mere  fact  that  such 
a  great  many  men,  and  still  more  boys,  look  on  an  increase 
of  money  as  merely  an  opportunity  for  spending  more 
time  in  play  is  a  cornplete  contradiction  of  that  ;  and 
when  young  men  are  choosing  their  walks  in  life,  they 
are  far  more  influenced  by  questions  of  whether  they  will 
find  the  work  interesting  and  whether  the  life  attracts  them 
than  they  are  by  the  mere  question  of  how  much  money 
they  expect  to  get. 

What  we  want,  then,  is  to  try  and  somehow  re-establish 
that  trust  between  employers  and  workmen  that  has,  to  a 
certain  extent,  fallen  into  abeyance,  but  by  no  means 
altogether.  What  we  want  is  more  confidence  and 
sympathy.  Everybody  knows  when  the  employers  meet  th* 
workmen,  as  they  do  regularly  in  most  trades,  for  the 
settlement  of  various  disputes  what  an  enormous  amount 
of  work  is  done  amicably  and  what  a  number  of  disputes 
are  nipped  in  the  bud  and  never  give  any  serious  trouble  ; 
and  it  is  certainly  the  case  that  if  the  leaders  on  either 
side  of  the  table  agree  verbally  to  any  arrangem-ent,  or 
promise  to  do  or  to  refrain  from  doing  anything,  the  other 
side  look  on  that  promise  as  being  quite  as  safe  as  a 
legal  pledge. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  really  foolish  and  bad  men,  by 
whom,  of  course?,  I  mean  employers  and  workmen  in  exactly 
the  same  degree  ;  but  a  great  deal  of  harm  may  be  done 
by  mistake  and  misunderstanding.  We  can  only  appeal 
to  our  having  confidence  in  each  other,  because  where  there 
is  confidence  mistakes  are  easily  explained,  and  where  there 
is  kindly  feeling  injustices  are  easily  put  right. 


CHAPTER    XI 

The   Land   Question 

By  W.  JOYNSON-HICKS,  M.P. 

The  men  in  the  dugouts  talk  of  a  good  many  subjects,  but  there  is  one  on 
which  they  are  all  agreed.  That  is  the  land  question.  They  are  not  going  back 
as  labourers  or  as  tenants  but  as  owners.  Lots  of  them  have  used  their  eyes  and 
have  learned  much  about  small  farming  out  here. 

"  Many  will  go  to  Canada,  some  to  Australia,  I  dare  say,"  said  one  man,  "but 
I  am  one  of  those  who  mean  to  have  a  little  bit  of  Blighty  for  myself.  We  see 
enough  in  France  to  know  that  a  man  and  his  family  can  manage  a  bit  of  land 
for  themselves  and  live  well  on  it."— At  tht  War,  Lord  Northcliffe,  p.  102. 

The  above  quotations  from  the  most  widely  read  book  on 
the  war,  written  by  a  Tory  newspaper  proprietor,  must  pt 
least  give  the  Unionist  Party  cause  to  think.  I  remember 
when  I  ventured  in  the  autumn  of  1 9 1 3  to  wtite  a  long  letter 
to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  urging  the  Party  to  deal  promptly 
and  effectively  with  the  land  question,  I  was  met  with  a 
storm  of  indignation,  both  privately  and  in  the  press,  which 
stigmatized  my  letter  as  an  amazing  document  for  a  Tory 
M.P.    to   have   penned. 

All  this  was  before  the  war,  when  individualism  was 
rampant,  and  when  the  last  stronghold  of  privilege  centred 
in  the  possession  of  the  land  ;  when,  moreover,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  was  regarded  as  something  a  shade  blacker  than 
Satan,  and  when  the  housing  of  cattle  was  considered  of 
more  importance  than  that  of  a  cottager.  During  the  war 
all  this  has  changed.  Our  pheasants  have  not  fought  for 
us,  but  our  cottagers  have  preserved  inviolate  the  sanctity 
of  our  shores,  and  will,  in  the  course  of  this  year,  restore 
civilization  to  a  battered  world  ;  while  Mr.  Lloyd  George  is 
the  head  of  a  Tory  Government. 

Let  us  see,  then,  what  is  the  position  to-day  in  regard 
to   Land  Reform — very   much   easier,    I   admit,   than   it   was 

i"   ^913-  ,    !  :    i  ( 

»8S 


1 86  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

Be  it  remembered  that  years  ago  the  bulk  of  the  land  in 
England  was  held,  and  largely  held,  as  freehold,  in  small 
holdings.  The  yeoman  farmer  of  England  was  the  man  who 
built  up  the  armies  which  fought  through  the  French  cam- 
paigns of  Edward  III  and  Henry  V,  and  which  crushed, 
under  Cromwell,  the  armies  of  Charles  I. 

Gradually  these  small  farms  were  bought  out  by  the 
neighbouring  landowners,  who  added  field  to  field,  and 
parish  to  parish,  till  we  now  know  that  some  of  them  own 
ten,  twenty,  thirty,  or  even  forty  thousand  acres,  a  monstrous 
abuse  of  the  land  laws  of  any  country — ^as  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  say,  from  personal  knowledge,  that  no  man  can  properly 
control  or  manage  such  vast  estates. 

All  through  the  weary  Victorian  era  the  sturdy  yeoman 
farmers,  bred  upon  the  soil,  desired  nothing  better  than  to 
live  their  life — ^hard  though  it  may  have  been,  but  satisfactory 
to  themselves  and  to  their  country— on  the  little  patches  of 
ground  which  came  down  to  them  from  their  fathers. 
To-day  their  descendants  are  mere  agricultural  labourers 
at  a  fixed  wage,  or,  what  is  worse,  have  drifted  away  into 
the  towns,  where  at  least  they  find  that  amusement  and 
companionship  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  working  for  a 
landlord  at    i6s.   a  week. 

We  are  beginning  to  realize,  in  consequence  of  the  war, 
the  effect  of  this  land  policy  in  regard  to  our  food  supply. 
The  total  food  bill  of  the  nation  is  about  450  millionls' 
sterling,  of  which  less  than  half  is  grown  in  the  United 
Kingdom  :  but  if  we  leave  out  certain  luxuries  and  deal 
only  with  the  staple  product  of  the  people's  food,  wheat,  it 
will  be  found  that  four -fifths  of  this  comes  to  us  from 
foreign  tountries  or  our  own  Colonies. 

Many  of  us  in  years  past,  and  above  all  my  friend^ 
Captain  Charles  Bathurst,  M.P. — ^now,  I  am  glad  to  say. 
Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the  Food  Controller — warned  our 
countrymen  of  the  effect  which  this  policy  would  have  in 
time  of  war.  Little  did  we  realize  how  soon  our  words  were 
to  come  true,  and  how  near  the  country  would  be  to  bread 
rations.  '  '       |  i     ; 

If  we  go  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  Victorian  period, 
when  the  population  of  the  United  Kingdom  was  about 
27  millions,  it  will  be  found  that  nearly  all  of  them  were 
fed  with  home-grown  wheat  ;  but,  with  a  population  of 
now  45  millions,  we  are  feeding  only  one -tenth  of  that 
number  with  wheat  which  we  grow  ;   and  the  extraordinary 


I 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  187 

point  is  that  with  all  the  improvements  of  science,  with  the 
development  of  mechanical  traction  on  farms,  with  the 
invention  and  increase  of  so  many  fertilizers,  the  area  under 
wheat  has  diminished  even  in  the  last  forty  years  by  more 
than  50  per  cent. 

It  is  idle  to  speculate  as  to  the  causes  of  this  decline,  or 
to  tinker  with  remedies,  without  going  to  the  root  cause  of 
all  and  considering  whether  the  whole  fiscal  and  land  policies 
of  our  country  have  not  been,  during  this  period,  grossly  at 
fault. 

Remember  also  that  it  is  not  as  if  the  land  which  had 
gone  out  of  arable  cultivation  had  been  laid  down  in  good 
grass,  and  had  fed  an  increasing  number  of  cattle.  Every 
one  who  has  read  Sir  Rider  Haggard's  "  Rural  England," 
or  who  has  even  himself  studied  the  condition  of  our  farm- 
lands, knows  perfectly  well  that  land  has  not  been  properly 
sown  with  grass  seed,  but  has  tumbled  back  into  a  collection 
of  couch  and  weeds,  providing  no  real  food  for  cattle.  It 
is  admitted  indeed  that  there  are  12  million  acres  of  poor 
grass  land  which,  if  properly  cultivated,  would  produce 
enormous  supplies  either  of  wheat  or  of  beef. 

Whatever  date  or  average  of  dates  you  like  to  take,  it 
will  be  found  that  there  has  been  no  increase  in  cattle  and 
sheep  commensurate  with  the  decrease  in  the  production  of 
wheat.  • 

A  greater  loss  than  that  of  cattle  and  wheat  is  that  of 
men  engaged  in  agriculture.  In  1842,  out  of  a  population 
of  16  millions  in  England  and  Wales,  there  were  over 
2^  millions  engaged  in  agriculture  ;  but,  prior  to  the  war, 
out  of  a  population  of  35  millions  there  were  less  than  one 
million  so  engaged  ;  and  if  you  look  at  the  numbers 
similarly  engaged  in  any  other  country  of  Europe  you  will 
find  that,  while  in  Austria  the  proportion  runs  as  high  as 
31  per  cent,  and  in  France  21,  in  England  it  is  down  to  less 
than  6  per  cent.,  who  are  engaged  in  providing  food  for  the 
people. 

It  is  this  exodus  from  the  land  which  is  really  the  fatal 
blot  on  our  agriculture,  and  we  have  not  got  to  consider 
homilies  as  to  the  benefit  of  agricultural  labour,  but  in  the 
truest  interests  of  our  country  we  must  take  the  steps, 
whatever  they  may  be,  to  bring  back  this  drain  from  the 
towns  into  the  healthier  life  of  the  counties. 

It  is  true  that  in  many  parts  of  England  prior  to  the  war 
agricultural  wages  had,  owing  to  the  drain  into  the  towns, 


1 88  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

risen  to  i8s.  and  20s.  per  week  ;  but  my  own  view  is  that 
even  if  this  were  raised  to  30s.  it  would  not  stem  the  steady 
influx  to  the  towns,  with  their  garish  but  at  the  same  time 
vital  existence. 

What  then  is  to  be  the  remedy?  You  cannot  make  the 
life  of  the  agricultural  labourer  otherwise  than  dull  and 
dreary.  You  cannot  provide  him  with  social  enjoyments  or 
with  the  amenities  of  the  dweller  in  towns  ;  and  so  long'  as 
the  man  has  no  roots  driven  deep  into  the  soil  he  will 
gradually,  and  still  more  will  his  sons,  go  where  life  and 
light  are  to  be  found. 

Consider,  on  the  other  hand,  the  possibility  of  making 
him  the  owner  of  the  soil.  There  you  get  what  Lord  North- 
cliff  e's  soldiers  have  seen  in  France — the  intense  patriotic 
love  of  the  piece  of  land  which  is  a  man's  very  own.  It  was 
so  in  the  England  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  so  in  France, 
Canada,  and  the  United  States  to-day  ;  and  I  am  never 
going  to  be  convinced  that  the  ingtained  desire  of  posses- 
sion, which  is  such  a  dominating  factor  in  the  life  of  these 
countries,  is  not  going  to  have  the  same  effect  here,  given 
only  a  trial  of  it  in  sufficient  numbers. 

Mere  tenancies  will  not  do — there  is  some  magic  in  owner- 
ship, and  the  smaller  the  owner  the  greater  the  magic.  Of 
course  Land  Banks  with  Governm^it  support  will  be  part  of 
the  new  movement — banks  which  will  enable  the  purchase 
to  be  effected  ;  but  beyond  the  initial  loan  on  a  fixed  basis 
I  would  make  all  mortgages  of  farms  or  holdings  of  less 
than  qo  acres  invalid. 

When,  however,  I  speak  of  land  purchase,  I  do  not  mean 
the  mere  provision  of  squatter -like  small-holdings  here  and 
there  ;  I  mean  the  possibility  of  doing  in  England  what  the 
Unionist  Party  has  done  in  Ireland.  There  we  have,  during 
the  last  few  years,  put  up  at  the  public  expense  43,000 
labourers'  cottasres  and  let  them* at  an  uneconomical  rent. 
There  we  have  pledged  the  credit  of  our  country  to  the  tune 
of  about  120  millions  sterling  in  order  to  enable  400,000 
Irish  farmers  to  purchase  about  1 1  million  acres  of  Irish 
land.  If  this  is  right  for  Ireland,  surely  it  must  be  equally 
right  for  England  and  Scotland  ?  If  we  are  prepared  to  pay 
this  for  Ireland,  surely  we  can  pay  it  for  our  own  country  ? 
But  you  may  say  to  me  :  "  What  right  has  the  State  to 
compel  Lord  This  or  That  to  sell  anything  out  of  his 
20,000  acres  ?  "  My  answer,  and  the  war  has  already  proved 
it,  is  that  the  State  is  more  than  the  individual. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  189 

Gone,  and  gone  for  good,  are  all  the  old  individualistic 
ideas  of  the  rights  of  property.  When  you  tax  an 
individual's  income  to  the  extent,  as  we  are  doing  to-day,  of 
well-nigh  los.  in  the  pound,  and  tax  it,  remember,  without 
any  revolt  on  the  part  of  the  taxpayer,  simply  because  the 
State  demands  it  in  the  interest  of  its  existence,  I  say  the 
State  is  equally  entitled  to  demand  that  these  big  properties 
should  be  cut  up  in  order  that  life  may  once  more  flow  in 
the  veins  which  have  too  long  been  choked  in  the  country 
districts. 

Before  the  war,  it  was  admitted  that  if  agriculture  was 
really  to  prosper,  at  least  a  hundred  thousand  cottages 
needed  building  by  the  State  :  that  was  Mr.  Lloyd  George's 
policy.  Are  the  Tory  Party  now  going  tO|  say  that  this  is 
a  policy  with  which  they  will  have  nothing  to  do  ?  If  this  is 
so,  they  will  find  a  rude  awakening  when  the  men  come  back 
from  the  front.  Do  you  think  that  after  the  war  the  men 
who  have  saved  the  situation  for  us  will  be  content  that 
13  millions  of  their  fellow -men  should  live  in  an  over- 
crowded condition? 

All  this  has  got  to  be  put  straight,  probably  by  a  national 
ministry  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  and  I  do  implore  my 
Tory  friends  not  to  shy  off  reforms  on  the  ground  that  they 
are  socialistic  :  why,  the  whole  of  the  war  is  socialistic  ; 
every  controlled  establishment  making  mimitions  is  social- 
istic ;  every  railway  is  socialistic  ;  the  way  in  which  food 
laws  are  fastened  upon  us  is  socialistic  ;  and  the  threats,  very 
likely  in  a  few  months  to  be  brought  into  operation,  of  com- 
pulsion to  divert  land  from  grass  to  tillage  is  socialistic. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  not  the  landlord  and  the  farmer 
forget  that  the  period  of  the  low  price  of  corn  has  gone  for 
at  least  two  generations.  During  the  twenty  years  prior  to 
the  war  wheat  was  never  above  35s.,  and  in  1894  it  fell  as 
low  as  23s.  per  quarter.  Now  the  new  President  of  the 
Board  of  Agriculture  offers  a  fixed  price  of  60s. 

Everybody  knows  that  after  the  war  there  must  be  a 
radical  change  in  our  fiscal  policy.  No  longer — and  this  I 
say  not  as  a  Tariff  Reformer  but  merely  as  an  Englishman — 
no  longer  shall  we  submit  to  be  the  dumping -ground  for 
German  manufactures.  Whether  by  a  tariff  or  by  direct 
prohibition,  th6se  will  be  kept  out  for  many  years  to  come  ; 
and  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  a  tariff  on  machinery,  for 
instance,  which  is  part  of  the  raw  material  of  agriculture, 
ought  in  common  fairness  to  be  counter -balanced  either  by 


19D  NATIONAL    EFFieiENOY 

a  tariff  on  agricultural  products  or  by  a  bounty  on  farm 
produce.  It  looks  as  if  the  latter  course  would  be  the  one 
more  Likely  of  adoption. 

I  do  not  say  that  wheat  will  remain  at  60s.  per  quarter, 
but  I  do  say  that  for  many  years  to  come  it  must  not  go 
below  45s.,  and  that  it  will  be  desirable  to  fix  a  minimum  at 
that  figure,  which  would  encourage  the  recultivation  of 
thousands  of  acres  of  derelict  land. 

We  are  more  and  more  producing  as  a  by-product 
sulphate  of  ammonia,  one  of  the  best  of  artificial  manures. 
Let  us  then  keep  this  in  our  own  country  instead  of  sending 
it  abroad  in  exchange  for  food,  which  could  be  better  grown 
here  ;  but,  above  all,  let  us  realize  that  "  when  the  boys 
come  home  "  they  will  come  with  an  appetite  for  open-air 
life,  with  a  dislike  of  the  cramping  and  confinement  of  the 
office  stool,  and  they  will  obtain  that  open-air  life  by  the 
ownership  of  land  here,  or  else  in  a  wholesale  exodus  to 
other  countries,  which  will  receive  them  with  open  arms, 
and  the  last  state  of  our  own  land  will  be  worse  even  than 
it  was  prior  to  the  war. 

PS. — The  above  article  was  written  before  Mr.  Lloyd 
George's  speech  fixing  a  minimum  wage  of  25s.  a  week 
and  guaranteeing  to  the  farmer  a  minimum  price  of  45s. 
for  wheat.  Out  of  this  wiE,  I  hope,  grow  the  full  policy 
I  have  outlined  above. — ^W.  J.-H. 


CHAPTER    XII 

The  Position  of  Women  in  Economic  Life 

By  MRS.  FAWCETT 

England  is  often  reproached  for  being  a  wasteful,  extra- 
vagant nation.  It  is  said  that  a  really  thrifty  people  could 
live  and  thrive  on  what  we  throw  away.  There  may  be 
an  element  of  exaggeration  in  the  statement,  but  there  is 
an  element  of  truth  in  it  also,  and  my  desire  in  the  present 
chapter  is  to  bring  before  its  readers  a  great,  and  indeed 
a  gross,   example  of  our  national  sin  of  wastefulness. 

We  have  not  made  in  the  past,  and  though  the  war  has 
taught  us  much  we  are  still  not  making,  anything  like  the 
use  we  ought  to  make  of  the  professional  and  industrial 
capabilities  of  women.  The  Vice -Chancellor  of  Liverpool 
University  has  recently  expressed  this  thought  in  a  vigorous 
sentence:  "As  long  as  a  State  uses  only  one -half  of  its 
citizens  for  social,  economic,  and  public  service,  it  is  weak 
where  it  ought  to  be  strong  and  poor  where  it  ought  to  be 
rich."  The  discovery  of  the  immense  reservoir  of  unused,  or 
only  partially  used,  productive  power  which  this  country  pos- 
sesses in  its  women  is  one  of  the  economic  events  of  the  war. 
But  surely,  it  may  be  objected,  the  great  mass  of  women 
of  the  industrial  class  have  always  been  employed,  and 
this  class  being  probably  fifteen  or  sixteen  times  more 
numerous  than  all  other  classes  put  together,  the  waste 
referred  to  is  minimized  in  importance  because  it  only 
affects  a  small  minority  of  the  popiilation.  It  is  true  that 
the  great  mass  of  our  countrywomen  always  have  worked 
for  their  living  ;  whether  as  wage -earners  or  as  home- 
keepers,  and  sometimes  as  both,  they  have  probably  put 
in  as  hard  a  day's  work  in  each  recurring  twenty -four 
hours  as  any  other  part  of  the  population.     I  should  indeed 

be'  prepared   to  argue  that  the   married  working   woman, 

191 


192  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

while  her  children  are  coming,  is  the  hardest  worked  mortal 
in  existence.  It  is  one  of  the  little  jokes  of  the  Census 
Department  to  describe  her,  officially,  as  "  unoccupied."  No 
one  is  "  occupied  "  within  the  meaning  of  the  Census 
Department  unless  she  is  earning  wages.  To  work  hard 
from  morning  to  night,  and  sometimes  during  the  night, 
cooking,  cleaning,  making,  mending,  washing,  and  generally 
"doing  for"  a  husband  and  five  or  six  childr^  not  in- 
frequently to  have  to  tend  a  baby  during  the  night,  or 
in  the  mining  districts  to  prepare  a  bath  or  food  for  son 
or  husband  working  on  an  eight -hour  shift,  is  the  Census 
Department's  notion  of  being  "  unoccupied  "  because  this 
work  is  unpaid.  Its  national  importance  is  more  and  more 
appreciated,  and  a  day  seems  coming  when  the  average 
married  working  woman  will  be  recognized  for  the  heroine 
she  very  often  is.  It  is  not  of  these  women  that  I  am 
thinking  when  I  say  that  England  has  allowed  the  indus- 
trial and  professional  capabilities  of  women  to  fust  in  them 
unused,  but  of  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  industrial 
women  working  for  wages  and  also  of  the  women  of  the 
professional  classes  who  are  either  altogether  unoccupied 
or  are  engaged  on  work  vastly  below  their  natural  capacity.' 
Lord  Revelstoke  has  lately  expressed  his  opinion  that  the 
astonishing  financial  stability  displayed  by  England  during 
the  war  has  been  in  part  due  to  the  "  use  of  the  great 
reservoir  of  labour  previously  untouched  here  :  women  and 
men  who  did  no  work  before  having  taken  the  places  of 
the  men  who  have  gone  to  the  trenches."  ^ 

Let  the  case  of  the  industrial  women  wage -earners  be 
considered  first.  They  are  by  far  more  numerous  than 
professional  women.  According  to  the  census  of  191 1, 
there  were  then  5,854,036  girls  and  women  in  England 
and  Wales  from  ten  years  old  and  upwards  working  for 
wages.  "  More  than  half  the  entire  female  population  of 
these  islands  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty-five 
is  thus  at  work  for  hire.  In  fact,  the  great  majority  of 
British  women  are  wage-earners  during  some  part  of  their 
lives  ;  at  the  most  employed  age  70  per  cent,  are 
employed."     If  the  numbers  of  female  workers  for  wages 

"  Defoe  called  attention  to  this  in  his  Essay  on  Projects.     He  spoke  of  the 
youth  of  women  being  used  to  teach  them    to  "stitch  and  sew  and  make 
baubles,"  and  he  added,  "  What  is  a  man,  a  gentleman,  I  mean,  good  for  that 
is  taught  no  more  ?  " 
»  The  Times,  June  27,  1916 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE      193 

in  Scotland  and  Ireland  are  added  and  allowance  made  for 
the  increase  of  population  since  191 1,  the  total  number 
must  have  risen  by  1 9 1 5  (apart  from  the  special  stimulus 
given  to  women's  employment  by  the  war)  to  at  least 
seven  millions.  According  to  a  table  prepared  by  Mr.  Sidney 
Webb  for  the  Fabian  Women's  group,  the  average  earnings 
per  adult  employed  manual  working  man  in  19 12  were 
£1  5s.  9d.  per  week  ;  per  adult  manual  working  woman  it 
was  less  than  half  this — being  only  los.  io|d.  per  week.' 
That  this  is  not  an  under  estimate  is  corroborated  from 
another  source.  When  the  Queen's  Work  for  Women  Fund 
was  inaugurated,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  to  deal  with 
the  expected  general  distress  among  the  wage -earners,  the 
rule  was  laid  down  in  the  emergency  workshops  then  opened 
for  women  that  the  wages  to  be  paid  were  in  no  case  to 
exceed  the  bare  subsistence  sum  of  los.  a  week  ;  for 
otherwise  these  workshops  would  have  attracted  women  from 
ordinary  employment.  The  interim  report  issued  by  the 
committee  stated  that  "  many  working  women  are  normally 
in  receipt  of  wages  below  subsistence  levels  Now  such 
a  state  of  things  reveals  a  social  and  economic  evil  the 
seriousness  of  which  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  Miss 
B.  L.  Hutchins,  in  her  book  "  Women  in  Modem  Industry," 
quotes  Miss  Anna  Tracey,  Factory  Inspector,  as  having 
said  (191 3),  "  Sometimes  one  feels  that  one  dare  not  con- 
template too  closely  the  life  of  our  working  women,  it  is 
such  a  grave  reproach."  And  the  facts  just  quoted  fully 
bear  out  the  feeling  which   Miss  Tracey  has  expressed. 

I  know  the  usual  things  which  are  said  in  mitigation 
of  the  serfdom  and  misery  which  the  miserable  wages  of 
women  revea.1  ;  such,  for  instance,  that  many  women  have 
homes  provided  for  them  by  their  parents  and  are  conse- 
quently willing  to  work  for  mere  pocket-money  wages,  and 
so  forth.  There  may  be  here  and  there  a  few  young  women 
who  are  working  under  these  conditions,  but  it  is  not  true 
of  the  mass,  who  have  to  subsist  on  what  they  earn  and 
in  very  many  cases  have  others  dependent  upon  them. 
I  quote  again  from  the  valuable  researches  made  by  the 
Fabian  Women's  group. ^  A  recent  analysis  of  2,410  cases 
showed  that 

432  were  contributing  to  the  upkeep  of  their  own 

'  Fabian  Tract,  No.  178,  "  The  War,  Women  and  Unemployment,"  by  the 
Fabian  Women's  i^roup. 

^  "  Wage  Earning  Women  and  their  Dependents"  (Fabian  Women'8  Tract) 

13 


194  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

and   other    homes   over   and   above   the   cost    of   their 
own  board  and  lodging. 

607  were  supporting  themselves  and  partially  sup- 
porting 610  adults  and  284  children. 

366  were   supporting  themselves   and   entirely  sup- 
porting    277    adults    and     338     children,    and    were 
contributing    to    the    support    of    46    adults    and    22 
children . 
The   results    of   outside   investigations    are    incorporated  in 
the  report,  and  the  conclusion  is  drawn  that  two -thirds  of 
the    wage -earning     women     are     not     only    entirely     self- 
supporting,  but  have  others  to  maintain  besides  themselves. 
The  extraordinarily  low  level  of  women's  wages  before 
the    war    cannot     therefore     be     explained    either    on    the 
**  pocket-money  "  theory   or  by  the   fiction  that  they  have 
no  one  dependent  upon  them.     Just  as  little  could  "  Charlie 
Chaplin's"   £162,000  a   year  be   explained  by  attributing 
to  him  an  extraordinarily  numerous  family.     We  must  look 
further  and   deeper   if   we   wish   to   find   the   causes  of  the 
enormous  disparity  between  sacrifice  and  reward  of  sacrifice 
in  the  case  of  the  women  wage-earners. 

In  the  Report  on  Women's  Employment  which  was  drawn 
up  for  the  British  Association,  19 15,'  it  was  pointed  out 
that  the  great  want  in  British  industrial  conditions  was  the 
very  small  proportion  of  skilled  labour  in  proportion  to 
unskilled,  and  that  this  disproportion,  large  everywhere,  was 
exceptionally  large  among  women.  It  was  argued  that 
there  was  never  in  pre-war  conditions  any  lack  of  un- 
skilled workers,  but  that  the  amount  of  unskilled  labour 
which  can  be  employed  depends  upon  the  proportion  of 
skilled  labour  which  can  be  obtained  to  lead  and  guide 
it.  "In  the  case  of  men  the  lack  of  training  and  experi- 
ence is  all  too  general  ;  amongst  women  it  is,  with  rare 
exceptions,  the  universal  rale"  (p.  7).  The  tract  by  the 
Fabian  Women  already  quoted  emphasizes  the  same  point. 
It  is  urged  that  the  provision  of  technical  education  for  girls 
all  over  the  country  is  extremely  inadequate  :  "  outside! 
London  trade  schools  for  girls  hardly  exist"  (p.  9). 
Technical  classed,  paid  for  by  the  ratepayers  and  subsi- 
dized by  Treasury  grants,  are  not  open  to  women,  although 
both  as  ratepayers  and  taxpayers  they  take  their  share  in 
paying  for  them.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  up  to  the 
present  time  it  has  been  the  considered  policy  of  Trade 
'  Draft  Interim  Report  of  the  Conference  on  Outlets  for  Labour  after  the  War. 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE      195 

Unions  to  keep  up  wages  by  restricting  as  far  as  possible 
the  number   of  people   entering   the   skilled   trades.      With 
their    enormous    and    well -organized    political    power    they 
have  been  able  to  command  the  support  of  both  political 
parties  for  this  policy.      When  the  seven  or  eight  hundred 
women  who  were  working  linotype  and  monotype  machines 
in  Edinburgh  were  doomed  to  industrial  extinction  as  the 
result  of  the  Typographical  Society's  strike  in   Edinburgh 
in   1910,  not  a  syllable  of  dissent  or  disapproval  was  heard 
from  either  of  the  political  parties,  although  the  work  was 
extremely  suitable  for  women  and  they  were  acknowledged 
to  be  experts  in  it.      Numbers  of  Members  of   Parliament 
are  ready  at  all  times  to  make  eloquent  speeches  in  support 
of   liberty    and    personal    independence    ("  as   far   away    as 
Paris  is  "),  but  not  one  was  found  ready  to  champion  the 
liberty   of  the   voteless  against  the   tyranny  of  the   serried 
ranks   of  the   Trade   Union   vote.      A   much   respected  ex- 
Member  of   Parliament   has   recently   said  as   the   result  of 
his  experience  of  politicians  :    "  Their  views  are  frequently 
actually  modified  by  their  incurable   cowardice  as  regards 
public  opinion.     The  fear  of  the  voter  becomes  a  part  of 
the  very  marrow  of  their  bones."  ' 

To  say  that  the  action  of  Trade  Unions  in  keeping  women 
out  of  the  skilled  industries  has  had  a  prejudicial  effect 
upon  women's  wages  and  industrial  status  generally  is  not 
to  make  any  attack  upon  the  general  usefulness  of  Trade 
Unions.  The  Trade  Unionists  have  but  acted  in  the  same 
spirit  as  doctors,  lawyers,  actuaries,  members  of  the  Civil 
Service,  and  probably  every  other  profession.  That  Trade 
Unions  are  not  only  desirable  but  absolutely  necessary  can, 
I  believe,  be  proved  to  demonstration,  and  if  any  one 
doubts  it  let  him  compare  the  position  of  nearly  all  classes 
of  industrial  workers,  with  and  without  the  protection  of 
a  union. 

When  the  Holt  Committee  on  the  wages  and  conditions 
of  employment  in  the  Post  Office  reported,  just  before  the 
war,  increased  wages  for  postal  employees  were  recom- 
mended which  would  amount  ultimately  to  nearly 
£2,000,000.  This  was  concentrated  entirely  on  the 
male  employees  ;  nothing  was  done  for  the  women.  A 
few  Members  of  Parliament  remonstrated,  but  entirely  with- 
out effect. 2     Even  now  in  war-time,   with  all  the  breaking 

'  Journal  of  Royal  Statistical  Society,  March  1916,  p.  147. 
*  Parlia  nie  ntary  debates,  Thursday,  April  30,  1914. 


196  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

down  of  old  customs  and  old  barriers  to  employment,  and 
the  high  wages  many  women  can  earn  in  munition  work, 
some  Government  Departments  are  still  (June  191 6)  offer- 
ing beggarly  wages  to  women  clerks  and  typists  ;  and 
I  hear  of  cutlery  girls  in  Sheffield  earning  only  6s.,  7s., 
8s.,  up  to  I2S.  a  week  for  grinding  knives,  14  inches 
long — work  that  is  usually  classed  as  "  men's  work."  To 
give  another  illustration,  taken  from  another  class  of  worker, 
I  quote  from  a  letter  to  The  Times,  signed  by  Dr.  Mary 
ScharUeb,  in  which  she  cites  the  case  of  educated  women, 
well  known  to  herself  as  patients,  now  acting  as  inspectors 
of  munition  workers.  Two  women  divide  the  twenty -four 
hours  of  each  day  between  them.  The  one  on  the  night 
shift  is  on  duty  from  8  p.m.  to  8  a.m.  **  The  circum- 
stances of  her  work  do  not  tend  to  make  it  easier.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  food,  no  rest-room,  no  sheltered  seat.  She 
has  to  walk  continually  along  galleries,  furnished  with  roofs 
and  floors,  but  no  walls.  The  exposure  to  wind  and  rain 
is  trying,  but  not  so  trying  as  the  absence  of  any  seats 
and  the  impossibility  of  a  hot  meal  "  {The  Times, 
April  II,  19 1 6).  No  one  can  doubt  that  the  girl  knife- 
grinders  of  Sheffield  and  the  women  inspectors  of  munition 
workers  would  benefit  greatly  in  bargaining  with  their 
employers  if  they  ceased  to  be  isolated  individuals  and 
became  members  of  well -organized  Trade   Unions. 

Over  and  above  such  specific  instances  as  these,  the 
long  fight  which  Trade  Unions  have  made  for  good  wages 
on  which  a  family  can  be  maintained  in  reasonable  comfort 
and  with  something  that  deserves  to  be  called  civilization 
represents  not  merely  an  advantage  for  a  particular  class, 
but  a  real  national  asset.  The  strain  of  war  has  made 
this  clearer  than  ever  before.  How  have  men  stood  the 
tremendous  physical  and  moral  strain  of  the  long  months 
of  trench  warfare  ?  They  have  been  continually  short  of 
rest,  pverpetually  under  fire,  wounded  once,  twice,  and  even 
three  times,  but  return  agiain  and  again  to  the  front  line. 
It  would  have  been  absolutely  impossible  for  men  to  stand 
this  tremendous  strain  unless  their  pre-war  conditions  had 
been  such  as  to  make  them  sound  and  robust,  physically 
and  mentally.  One  of  the  things  we  are  learning  from 
the  war  is  that  national  welfare  depends  on  the  health  of  the 
people,  and  that  good  health  cannot  be  expected  without  good 
conditions  ;  it  is  for  these  good  conditions  that  the  Trade 
Unions  have  made  so  gallant  and  so  self-sacrificing  a  fight. 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     197 

While  recognizing  this  to  the  full,  it  is,  however,  felt 
that  especially  in  the  matter  of  women's  labour  the  Trade 
Unions  have,  as  a  whole,  pursued  a  mistaken  policy,  and 
one  that  has  had  a  terribly  depressing  effect  on  women's 
wages.  "  Female  labour  is  not  at  present  a  crying  evil 
in  our  trade,  and  we  must  see  to  it  that  it  does  not  become 
one,"  said  a  Trade  Union  report.  That  is  the  spirit  which 
women  have  had  to  contend  with  and  overcome.  We 
have  to  convince  the  men  Trade  Unionists  that  their  right 
line  of  policy  is  not  to  keep  the  women  out,  but  to  help 
the  women  in,  to  welcome  their  entry  to  well-paid  work,  to 
give  them  the  benefit  of  their  own  larger  knowledge  and 
wider  experience,  and  either  to  enrol  them  into  their  own 
Trade  Unions  or  to  help  them  to  form  Trade  Unions  of 
their  own. 

The  risk  of  losing  the  undoubted  gains  that  have  been 
won  for  wage -earning  men  by  the  activities  of  their  unions 
is  greatly  increased  as  long  as  there  is  such  huge  differ- 
ences in  the  general  wages  of  men  and  women.  The 
policy  of  Trade  Unions  should  now  be  directed  to  equalizing 
wages.  The  larger  the  difference  in  the  rate  of  remunera- 
tion between  men  and  women,  the  greater  is  the  temptation 
to  employers  to  cease  to  employ  men  and  take  women  in 
their  place.  We  have  to  root  out  of  people's  minds  the 
notion  which  largely  prevails  that  about  15s.  a  week  is 
a  sort  of  "natural"  wage  for  women.  Miss  Adelaide 
Anderson,  the  Chief  Lady  Inspector  of  Factories,  quotes 
in  her  report  for  191 4  the  remark  of  a  foreman  about 
piece-work  :  "  What  can  one  do  when  a  girl  is  earning 
as  much  as  15s.  a  week  but  lower  the  piece  rate?" 
(p.  49).'  Many  Trade  Unionists  who  have  won  a 
deservedly  high  place  in  the  councils  of  their  movement 
sec  that  their  right  policy  now  is  to  improve  the  whole 
industrial  status  of  women.  They  realize  that  women  can- 
not be  kept  out  of  industry,  that  they  have  come  to  stay  ; 

'  Miss  Clara  Collet,  M.A.,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Statistical  Society 
in  May  1916,  on  "The  Cost  of  Food  for  an  Adult  Woman,"  gave  the  sum  as 
98.  6d.  per  week  in  1912  and  (even  when  reduced  by  war  economies,  such  as 
substituting  margarine  for  butter,  etc.)  as  12s.  9d.  at  the  war  prices  of  1916. 
This,  in  her  view,  represented  the  lowest  sum  necessary  for  efficiency.  When  it 
is  reflected  that  a  woman,  besides  food,  needs  clothing,  housing,  fuel,  some 
expenditure  on  locomotion,  besides  an  occasional  holiday,  the  calculation  forces 
the  conclusion  that  considerable  numbers  of  working  women  are  forced  to  live, 
even  during  the  boom  in  women's  work  caused  by  the  war,  under  the  standard 
necesMry  for  health  and  efficiency. 


198  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

that  to  resist  the  inevitable  would  be  to  repeat  the  miseries 
and  futilities  that  were  associated  with  the  resistance  to 
the  introduction  of  machinery  and  with  a  like  hopeless 
result.  But  it  is  the  experience  gained  during  the  second 
year  of  the  war  that  has  destroyed  the  fiction  that  women 
were  incapable  of  skilled  work.  It  is  interesting  and  in- 
structive to  find  that  so  recently  as  September  1 9 1 5  the 
report,  already  referred  to,  published  under  the  auspices 
of  the  British  Association,'  assumed  in  some  passages, 
though  not  in  all,  that  women  were  not  in  the  skilled 
trades  because  they  were  imable  to  do  skilled  work.  In 
one  passage  the  fact  is  referred  to  that  in  many  of  the 
textile  trades  men  and  women  work  the  same  machines 
but  receive  very  different  rates  of  pay,  and  the  reason 
alleged  for  this  is  that  the  work  really  is  unequal  because 
the  women  can  only  in  rare  instances  "  tune  "  or  "  set  " 
their  machines  ;  the  assistance  of  a  male  tackier  is  re- 
quired, and  thus  time  is  lost  land  extra  expense  incurred. 
These  facts  are  indisputable,  but  in  connection  with  them 
another  fact  should  be  remembered — namely  that  stringent 
Trade  Union  rules  prevented  women  from  being  taught  to 
"  set  "  and  "  tune  "  their  machines.  They  do  not  do  it, 
because  they  are  not  allowed  to  learn  how  to  do  it.  Now 
the  notion  that  women  were  unable  to  do  skilled  work  has 
been  shattered  by  experience,  one  imagines  that  those  who 
were  its  priests  and  prophets  had  never  seen  or  heard 
such  artists  as  Miss  Marie  Hall  play  the  violin  or  Miss 
Fanny  Davies  the  piano.  They  can  hardly  even  have  seen 
a  woman  dancing  on  the  tight -rope,  or  the  numerous  suc- 
cessors of  Mrs.  Vincent  Crummies  standing  on  their  heads 
"  on  the  top  of  a  long  pole,  surrounded  by  blazing  fire- 
works." Let  any  one  who  imagines  that  this  needs  no 
skill  try  it.  i  i  !     i 

With  every  disposition  to  recognize — nay,  warmly  to 
appreciate — the  absolutely  indispensable  services  of  Trade 
Unions,  their  admirers  must  face  the  fact  that  in  the  matter 
of  their  attitude  to  women's  labour  they  have  taken  the 
wtong  turning  and  have  been  responsible  for  a  great  deal 
of  the  misery  and  degradation  of  the  sweated  woman. 
They  have  been  wrong,  and  the  wrong  is  all  the  greater 
because  it  has  been  against  the  principles  of  the  creed 
they  have  professed.  The  elevation  of  the  status  of  labour 
has  been  a  religion  to  many  of  them,  but  in  this  matter  of 
•  See  pp.  7,  II,  X2, 15. 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE      199 

women's  labour  they  have  "  denied  their  faith  to  make 
their  faith  prevail."  To  forcibly  prevent  half  the  nation 
from  undertaking,  or  learning  to  undertake,  skilled  work 
is  a  hideous  tyranny,  which  has  kept  huge  masses  of  indus- 
trial women  in  a  sort  of  serfage,  from  which  before  the 
war  escape  seemed  impossible.  Now  the  wisest  and  most 
experienced  of  the  Trade  Unionists  know  that  the  women 
have  come  to  stay.  Mr.  J.  H.  Thomas,  M.P.,  General 
Secretary  of  the  National  Union  of  Railway  Men,  has  taken 
a  leading  part  from  an  early  date,  after  the  new  conditions 
caused  by  war  became  apparent,  in  urging  that  women 
should  receive  men's  pay  where  they  are  doing  men's 
work.'  His  union  was  the  first,  after  the  beginning  of 
the  war,  to  enrol  women  as  members.  As  early  as  June 
1915,  addressing  the  annual  conference  of  the  Railway 
Men's  Union,  he  urged  the  members  to  recognize  that  the 
women  had  come  to  stay,  and  that  by  every  means  in  their 
power  the  men  should  insist  upon  the  women  receiving  the 
same  pay  as  men  for  the  same  work.  "  If  the  Concilia- 
tion Board  agreement  says  that  a  certain  rate  of  wages 
must  be  paid  for  a  certain  grade,  it  does  not  say  that  that 
rate  is  for  men  only  and  not  for  women."  2  In  November 
of  the  same  year  he  addressed  a  mass  meeting  of  railway 
workers  at  Middlesbrough,  and  urged  the  same  policy. 
Speaking  of  the  great  effort,  financial,  industrial,  and 
military,  that  would  be  needed  to  bring  about  a  satisfactory 
end  to  the  war,  he  said  :  "  I  do  not  suggest  that  more 
ought  not  to  be  done,  because  evidence  I  have  received 
from  France  and  Germany  convinces  me  that  women  are 
not  fully  utilized  to-day.  .  .  .  We  recognize  that  women 
ought  to  be  employed,  but  we  refuse  to  allow  them  to 
be  employed  at  sweated  wages  with  the  view  solely  of 
keeping  down  the  wages  of  our  own  labour.  We  do 
not  object  to  the  employment  of  women  simply  because 
they  are  women.  What  we  object  to  is  that  women's  labour 
should  be  exploited  by  any  employer  for  his  own  personal 
ends."  3     In  a  later  speech,  delivered  to  the  same  organiza- 

'  Up  to  July  1916,  the  following  unions  had  also  admitted  women  :  The 
Railway  Clerks  Association,  The  Gas  Workers  and  General  Labourers  Union, 
The  Steel  Smelters  Union,  and  certain  smaller  unions  such  as  the  Amalgamated 
Engine  and  Crane  Drivers  Union,  and  the  National  Union  of  Packing-case 
Makers. 

"  Manchester  Guardian,  June  21,  1915. 

3  Daily  News,  November  i,  1915. 


200  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

tion  at  Bath  in  June   191 6,  lie  grappled  with  the  industrial 
problems  that  would  arise  after  the  war,  and  said  :    '*  Was 
there  any  sensible  man  who  believed  that  if  the  war  ended 
to-morrow   the    women    were    going    to    be    driven    out    of 
industry  ?     If  any  did  so  believe,  he  was  living  in  a  fools' 
paradise.      Viewed   from   the   moral   standpoint,    would   any 
man  contemplate  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction  an  inten- 
tion of  throwing  out  of  the  industrial  arena  one  and  three- 
quarter   millions   of   women?      He   said    'No.'      They    had 
no  right  to  set  up  a  sex  war,  but  they  had  a  right  to  say 
that    no    employer    should    be    allowed    in    future    to    take 
advantage  of  women's  labour  as  a  means  of  reducing  the 
value    of    men's    labour.      There    was   only    one    way,    and 
that   was   to   insist   that   wherever   women   were    doing   the 
work  of  men  they  should  be  paid  the  same  rates  as  men."  ' 
Mr.  Thomas's  speeches  have  been  characterized  through- 
out by  the  spirit  indicated  in  the  phrase,  "  Viewed  from  the 
moral    standpoint,    would    any    man    contemplate    with    any 
degree  of  satisfaction  an  intention  of  throwing  out  of  the 
industrial  arena  one  and  three-quarter  millions  of  women?  " 
The  appeal  is  a  moral  appeal,  and  is  representative  of  the 
close  and   intimate   connection  between  the  Labour  move- 
ment in  this  country  and  the  religious  spirit  and  religious 
ideals  to   which  an   article   in  the   Round    Table   for   June 
191 6  drew  attention.     This,  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer 
in  that   review,   represents  the   greatest  point  of   difference 
between    the    British    and    continental    Labour    movements. 
It  is  certain  that  all  through  Josephine  Butler's   campaign 
against   the   infamous,    and    now    utterly   discredited,    CD. 
Acts,    when    the    whole    of    the    great    world    in    science, 
religion,   and   politics   was   against    her,   she   relied   with   a 
certainty  that  was  never  disappointed  on  the   moral   sense 
of  working  men  and  women. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Thomas  puts  the  estimated 
number  of  women  newly  engaged  in  industry,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  war,  at  one  and  three-quarter  millions.  The 
Women's  Labour  League's  estimate  is  as  high  as  two  and 
a  half  millions.  Mr.  Mallin,  of  the  Anti-Sweating  League, 
considers  this  a  gross,  indeed  a  grotesque,  over-estimate. 
Exact  figures  are  obviously  very  difficult  to  arrive  at  because 
of  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  distinguishing  between  those 
newly  engaged  in  industrial  work  and  those  who  have 
simply  transferred   their   labour   from   one   employment   to 

•  Daily  News,  June  19,  1916. 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     201 

another.  We  have,  however,  to  remember  that  by  the 
beginning  of  May  191 6  more  than  five  million  men,  by 
voluntary  enlistment  alone,  had  joined  the  Army  and  Navy  ; 
it  would  be  a  safe  estimate  to  reckon  that  nine -tenths  of 
these  were  from  the  industrial  classes.  Of  course,  it  is 
quite  obvious  that  there  is  great  shortage  of  labour  every- 
where ;  but  it  is  also  obvious  that  in  a  very  large  number 
of  trades  the  work  formerly  done  by  men  is  now  being 
done  by  women.'  Without  hazarding  any  guess  as  to 
exact  numbers,  we  all  know  that  the  number  of  women 
newly  employed  in  industry  is  very  large  ;  the  best  judges 
believe  that  it  will  be  permanent  ;  and  that  to  safeguard 
the  interests  of  labour  generally  the  strongest  possible  effort 
should  be  made  to  secure  the  principle  of  equal  pay  for 
equal  work.  The  representatives  of  the  Government  when 
they  were  employed  in  gaining  the  consent  of  the  Trade 
Unions  to  the  entrance  of  women  into  occupations  from 
which  they  had  formerly  been  excluded  definitely  and 
specifically  accepted  this  principle.  Captain  Williams, 
speaking  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Trade  at  a  large 
meeting,  which  was  also  addressed  by  Lord  Derby,  in 
the  Town  Hall,  Manchester,  in  June  1 9 1  5,  said  definitely  : 
"  Let  me  say  at  once  the  ^underlying  principle  is  that  women 
should  get  equal  pay  with  men  for  equal  results.  The 
intention  is  not  to  engage  a  cheap  substitute  for  men's 
labour." 

Nevertheless,  the  movement  of  women  into  industries 
formerly  closed  to  them  has,  at  this  moment,  and  prob- 
ably will  have  for  a  long  time  to  come,  to  coi>e  with 
constant  efforts  to  cut  down  their  rate  of  pay.  The 
Government  is  very  far  from  setting  a  good  example  in 
this  respect.  For  clerical  work  the  pay  allowed  by  the 
Treasury  for  women  is  substantially  lower  than  that  for 
men.     When  in    19 16  the   great  rise  in  prices   called  for 

'  The  very  satisfactory  trade  returns  for  the  month  of  June  1916  show  that 
our  principal  exports  are  not  being  starved  for  want  of  labour.  Part  of  the 
increase  was  no  doubt  apparent  only,  and  must  be  attributed  to  higher  prices  ; 
but  the  total  advance  in  British  exports  in  June  1916  was  42-2  per  cent,  above  the 
exports  for  June  1915  ;  and  a  large  part  of  this  was  due  to  increased  output, 
especially  in  the  trades  where  women  are  in  a  majority.  Thus  cotton  piece 
goods  showed  an  advance  of  76  million  yards  ;  linen  piece  goods  of  nearly 
3  million  yards  ;  carpets,  244,000  square  yards.  Women  were  always  in  the 
majority  in  the  textile  trades,  but  they  are  now  admitted  to  many  processes 
which  were  formerly  reserved  for  men.  The  growth  in  exports  can  fairly  be 
attributed  in  a  large  degree  to  women's  harder  work  and  longer  hours, 


202  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

a  bonus  in  the  wages  of  the  clerical  staff  in  Government 
Departments  an  extra  4s.  a  week  was  given  to  all  the 
men  from  eighteen  years  old  and  upwards,  but  only  2s. 
a  week  to  women.  The  old  story  of  the  men  having 
dependents  and  the  women  having  none  was  of  course 
the  excuse,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  many  boys  of 
eighteen  have  families  dependent  upon  them.  When  the 
question  of  war  bonus  for  their  employees  came  beforoi 
the  Liverpool  City  Council  the  more  logical  course  was 
adopted  of  dividing  them  into  two  groups,  irrespective  of 
sex,  those  with  dependents  and  those  without  dependents, 
and  the  rate  of  the  war  bonus  was  regulated  accordingly. 

In  munition  factories  the  promise  of  the  Government 
given  in  July  1 9 1  5  that  every  woman  over  eighteen  should 
be  paid  a  minimum  of  £1  a  week  is  still  (January 
191 7)  unfulfilled  in  tens  of  thousands  of  cases.  In  many 
munition  works,  subsequent  to  July  191 5,  women's  wages 
have  ranged  from  12s.  to  15s.  a  week,  and  in  oxy- 
acetylene  welding,  work  hitherto  done  by  skilled  men  paid 
at  the  rate  of  42s.  a  week,  women  in  many  cases  were) 
only  receiving    i8s.  to  £1. 

A  pamphlet,  published  in  the  spring  of  191 6  by  the 
Manchester  Women's  War  Interests  Committee,  states  that 
there  were  then  many  instances  in  the  locality  of  adult 
women  in  munition  works  who  had  passed  through  the 
training  stage,  but  were  earning  no  more  than  9s.  to  14s. 
a  week  time  wage.  Many  shops  pay  15s.  as  a  time  wage 
for  women,   while  between    12s.  and    15s.  is  an  average.' 

In  a  letter  to  the  Press,  published  in  June  191 6  over 
the  signatures  of  Mrs.  Creighton,  Miss  Violet  Markham, 
Mrs.  Sidney  Webb,  and  others,  it  was  stated  that  in  many 
instances  women,  doing  Government  work,  were  being 
given  wages  insufficient  at  war  prices  to  maintain  them 
in  full  efficiency  of  body  and  mind.  They  quote  a  case 
where  "  in  a  recent  formal  arbitration  under  the  Munitions 
Act  the  arbitrator  actually  fixed  2|d.  an  hour  as  the  wages 
of  adult  women,  many  of  them  employed  on  Government 
work.  For  a  sixty -hour  week  this  is  only  13s.  iid.  a 
week,  equal  to  no  more  than  9s.  or  los.  a  week  two 
years  ago."  2 

A    new    Government    order   was    issued    in    June    191 6, 

'  "  Women  in  the  Labour  Market  (Manchester  and  District)  during  the  War." 
Price  Id.    William  Morris  Press,  42  Albert  Street,  Manchester. 
«  "The  Common  Cause,"  June  30,  1916. 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     203 

and  another  in  December  of  the  same  year,  with  the 
avowed  object  of  remedying  this  state  of  things  and  of 
securing  to  women  in  munition  work,  whether  they  are 
doing  men's  work  or  women's  work,  at  least  £1  a  week. 
Neither  is  accepted  by  the  women's  representatives  as  really 
satisfactory.  Miss  Mary  MacArthur  wrote  to  the  Press  in 
January  1917  to  the  effect  that  "at  the  very  lowest  calcu- 
lation there  are  over  100,000  women  working  on  munitions 
of  various  kinds  who  are  not  yet  granted  a  living  wage." 
She  quoted  specific  instances  in  Sheffield  and  in  Southamp- 
ton in  support  of  this  statement.'  The  fact  seems  to  be 
that  these  repeated  orders  show  the  object  aimed  at  by 
the  Government  has  not  yet  been  lattained.  The  effect 
of  the  orders  has  been  to  improve  the  position  of  many 
of  the  women  employed  in  munitions,  but  that  the  improve- 
ment has  not  reached  many  thousands  of  women  working  in 
"  controlled  "  establishments,  who  are  still  receiving  less 
than  a  living  wage  and  who  are  precluded  by  the  terms 
of  the  original  Munitions  Act  from  changing  their  employ- 
ment and  transferring  their  labour  to  shops  which  give 
better  conditions.  The  workers  and  their  representatives 
argue  very  justly  that  the  Government  should  either  give 
the  women  freedom  to  change  their  employers  or  should 
vigorously  enforce  the  various  statutory  orders  in  all 
munition  works. 

It  has  often  been  suggested  that  women  should  join 
the  men's  Trade  Unions.  This  is  not  quite  so  easy  as 
it  sounds.  Many  of  the  men's  Trade  Unions  refuse 
membership  to  women.  The  constitution  of  the  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Engineers  is  so  drawn  that  women  cannot 
be  admitted  without  enabUng  legislation.  The  A.S.E. 
made  no  agreement  with  the  employers  as  to  women's 
wages  and  conditions  of  work  when  women  were  admitted 
into  the  shops  :  in  the  Manchester  district  10,000  women 
are  employed,  and  not  more  than  1,000  or  1,200  are 
organized.  The  writer  of  the  pamphlet  just  quoted  says  : 
"  The  first  attitude  of  the  majority  of  unions  threatened  with 
this  innovation  [the  introduction  of  female  labour]  was  that 
of  uncompromising  refusal  to  work  with  women.  When 
this  proved  untenable,  the  more  far-sighted  Trade  Union 
leaders  saw  the  danger  of  allowing  a  double  standard  of 
payment  for  the  same  work.  It  is  now  possible  to  attempt 
some    estimate   of    how    far    the   Trade    Union    world    has 

•  The  Times,  January  6,  1917. 


t. 


204  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

been  driven  to  overcome  its  prejudices  against  a  woman 
receiving  the  same  pay  as  a  man,  in  order  to  safeguard 
its  own  hardly  won  rates"  (p.  i8).  On  reading  the 
pages  which  follow  it  is  not  possible  to  form  an  opinion 
that  the  Trade  Union  world  has  been  driven  very  far  in 
this  desirable  direction.  Still,  a  beginning  has  been  made. 
The  Railway  Men's  Union,  as  already  mentioned,  led  the 
way  ;  the  situation  is  modified  in  the  direction  of  improve- 
ment from  week  to  week,  and  it  is  satisfactory  to  learn 
that  "  hostility  to  women's  labour,  as  such,  has  almost 
disappeared  among  Trade  Unionists  "    (p.   21). 

Still,  the  difficulties  are  great,  and  are  likely  to  continue 
so.  On  the  one  hand  the  old  Trade  Union  prejudices 
against  a  woman  receiving  the  same  pay  as  a  man, 
and  on  the  other  the  constant  pressure  of  employers  who 
naturally  take  advantage  of  this  prejudice  in  order  to  get 
cheap  labour.  The  women  acetylene -welders  have  had  some 
experience  of  this.  The  London  Society  for  Women's 
Suffrage,  among  their  many  beneficent  activities  during  the 
war,  have  been  training  women  as  acetylene-welders.  They 
have  been  able  with  ease  to  place  all  their  trained  workers 
in  aircraft  factories,  where  they  have  received  wages  of 
8d.  an  hour,  and  in  some  cases  Qd.  or  9^d.  At  one  of 
the  factories  the  girls  asked  for  a  rise  from  8d.  to  gd., 
and  it  was  refused.  The  employers  then  tried  to  makie 
them  sign  an  agreement  to  work  at  a  flat  rate  of  8d.  an 
hour  to  the  end  of  the  war,  no  matter  what  work  they 
were  doing.  They  refused  and  formed  a  union,  one  of 
the  niles  of  which  was  that  the  initial  wage  should  be 
8d.  an  hour.  The  men  employed  ^n  the  same  factory 
were  having  lod.,  is.,  and  is.  2d.  an  hour  ;  the  women 
doing  in  most  cases  absolutely  identical  work.  Now  if 
this  is  allowed  to  go  on,  and  if  there  is  no  real  justifica- 
tion for  the  inferior  rate  of  pay  of  women,  it  is  obvious 
that  it  must  end  in  the  women  monopolizing  the  trade 
and  the  men  being  turned  out  of  it  or  coming  down  to 
the  women's  rate  of  wages.  Therefore  the  interests  of  the 
men  and  women  now  employed  are  absolutely  identical, 
and  they  should  stand  together  and  help  each  other. 

Before  the  war  the  ready  explanation  of  the  inferior 
wages  of  women  would  have  been  the  alleged  inferiority 
of  women's  work  ;  but  this  can  hardly  be  urged  now. 
For  there  is  abundance  of  evidence  that  the  allegation 
of  the  inferior  productive  results  of  women's  work  is  with- 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     205 

out  foundation.  We  have  not  only  general  expressions 
to  prove  this  from  such  men  as  Mr.  Runciman,  Lord  Derby, 
and  others,  but  definite  specific  statements  from  experi- 
enced employers  such  as  Sir  William  Beardmore,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute.  A  few  quotations 
from  both  sources  may  not  be  superfluous.  Mr.  Runciman, 
in  the  spring  of  1916  spoke,  as  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  of  women  doing  "  amazingly  good  work  "  ;  he 
referred  to  the  numbers,  then  reaching  over  365,000,  in 
which  women  in  engineering  had  been  put  to  do 
work  formerly  done  by  men.  He  said:  "  In  one  firm 
they  are  making  electric  motors,  in  another  they  are  doing 
all  the  work  in  manufacturing  2 -inch  howitzer  bombs,  in- 
cluding testing.  And  they  are  doing  many  other  kinds 
of  work  requiring  the  employment  of  machinery  and 
calling  for  the  greatest  skUl."  The  Round  Table  (March 
1916)  writes  of  the  employment  of  women  in  all  kinds 
of  trades  from  which  they  were  formerly  excluded,  and 
says  "  they  have  shown  an  adaptability  and  capacity  which 
has  upset  many  cherished  beliefs  and  undoubtedly  made 
a  deep   impression  on  the   public  mind." 

These  opinions,  however  interesting,  are  general  in 
character,  and  they  should  be  supplemented  by  specific 
facts  drawn  from  practical  experience.  These  may  be 
found  in  the  account  in  the  Press  of  a  visit  to  a  munitions 
factory  in  February  19 16,  in  which  the  employment  of 
women  and  the  absence  of  any  attempt  to  use  the  women 
to  undercut  the  men  had  had  the  eflfect  of  quintupling 
the  output.  Here  we  have  the  story  of  the  former  char- 
woman doing  gun -breech  work,  boring  a  hole  |-inch  in 
diameter  dead  true  through  nearly  12  inches  of  steel.  The 
test  of  success  is  the  tally  of  broken  tools,  and  "  this 
woman  has  as  yet  a  clean  sheet."  Another  case  was  of 
a  woman  who  had  become  "  surprisingly  proficient  in  slot- 
drilling',  a  process  in  which  thousandths  of  an  inch  matter. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  women  in  the  shop,  she  received 
25s.  a  week  for  a  fortnight  for  sitting  beside  a  skilled 
male  hand  watching  him  work  the  machine.  Eventually 
she  was  allowed  to  try  her  hand  at  the  work,  then  took 
it  over  under  supervision,  and  now  runs  the  machine  un- 
aided during  the  day  for  the  man  to  take  it  over  for  the 
night   shift."  ' 

Sir  William  Beardmore  in  his  presidential  address  to  the 
'  Manchester  Guardian,  February  2,  igi6. 


2o6  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY, 

Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  in  May  191 6,  told  the  experienc3e 
of  his  own  firm  as  to  the  formerly  unused  reservoir  of 
productive  capacity  which  women  were  able  to  supply.  He 
complained  of  the  resistance  of  the  workers  under  pre-war 
conditions  to  utilize  to  the  best  advantage  improved  methods 
of  manufacture  evolved  by  experimental  research,  and 
added  :  "  Early  in  the  war  it  was  found  at  Parkhead 
forge  that  the  output  from  the  respective  machines  was  not 
so  great  as  what  the  machines  were  designed  for,  and  one 
of  the  workers  was  induced  to  do  his  best  to  obtain  the 
most  out  of  a  machine.  He  very  greatly  increased  his 
output,  notwithstanding  his  predilection  for  Trade  Union 
restrictions.  When  it  was  found  that  the  demands  of  the 
Government  for  a  greatly  accelerated  production  of  shells 
required  the  employment  of  girls  in  the  projectile  factory 
owing  to  the  scarcity  of  skilled  workers,  these  girls  in  oil 
cases  produced  more  than  double  that  by  thoroughly  trained 
mechanics — members  of  Trade  Unions — working  the  same 
machines  under  the  same  conditions.  In  the  turning  of 
the  shell  body  the  actual  output  by  girls,  with  the  same 
machines  and  working  under  exactly  the  same  conditions 
and  for  an  equal  number  of  hours,  was  quite  double  that 
by  trained  mechanics.  In  the  boring  of  shells  the  output 
was  also  quite  double,  and  in  the  curving,  waving,  and 
finishing  of  shell -cases  quite  120  per  cent,  more  than  that 
of  experienced  mechanics."  ' 

Now  these  facts,  the  importance  of  which  cannot  be 
minimized  or  explained  away,  reveal  a  defect  in  our  whole 
industrial  organization.  Masses  of  men,  for  the  most  part 
clear-headed,  public-spirited  and  honest,  conceive  it  to  be 
an  essential  part  of  their  duty  to  their  class  artificially  to 
restrict  output  and  thus  render  their  labour  vastly  less  pro- 
ductive than  it  might  easily  become.  They  know  that 
millions  of  their  fellow  working  men  and  women  live 
habitually  on  the  poverty  line,  and  often  below  it  ;  they 
know  that  the  total  remuneration  of  capital  and  labour 
can  come  but  from  one  source---the  product  of  their  joint 
activities — ^and  yet  they  sedulously  set  themselves  to  reduce 
this  product  and  believe  they  are  serving  the  cause  of 
Labour  by  doing  so.  Until  this  blot  in  industrial  organiza- 
tion is  removed  the  outlook  for  the  future  remains  dark 
and  threatening.  It  is  not  my  part  in  this  chapter  to 
endeavour  to  suggest  how  the  difficulty  should  be  tackled. 

'  Manchester  Guardian,  May  16,  1916.    The  italics  are  mine. — M.  G.  F. 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     207 

I  am  now  concerned  with  its  influence  on  the  industrial 
position  of  women  ;  and  I  can  only  say  that  the  exclusion 
of  women  from  the  skilled  trades  which  was  a  part  of 
the  Trade  Union  policy  up  to  1 9 1 5  has  reduced  a  great 
mass  of  industrial  women  to  a  position  of  virtual  serfdom, 
forcing  them  out  of  the  ranks  of  skilled  industry  for  which 
they  are  well  fitted  into  the  already  overcrowded  ranks  of 
the  unskilled  and  unorganized.  Women  in  skilled  employ- 
ments have  been  turned  out  of  them  by  the  pressure  of 
Trade  Unions,  and  the  freeing  of  women  from  these  ishackles 
has  only  been  accomplished  at  the  price  of  a  world  war 
on  an  unprecedented  scale.  It  may  well  be  said,  "At  a 
great  price  bought  I  this  freedom."  There  has  been 
nothing  like  it  in  industrial  history  since  the  Black  Death 
in  the  fourteenth  century  broke  down  villeinage  and  serfage. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  we  can  no  more  afford  to 
have  under -efficiency  and  under-production  after  the  war 
than  during  the  war.  We  shall  be  a  vastly  poorer  nation. 
The  whole  energies  of  the  country  are  being  rightly  con- 
centrated during  the  war  to  bring  it  to  a  satisfactory 
conclusion,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  the 
same  thing  as  saying  that  our  national  energies  are  now 
mainly  devoted  to  destruction.  To  repair  the  loss  will  be 
the  task  of  the  years  that  immediately  follow  the  war. 
Every  man  and  woman  will  have  to  work  harder  and  live 
simpler  than  in  the  pre-war  era.  Our  national  habit  of 
not  using  to  anything  like  their  full  extent  the  industrial 
and  professional  capacities  of  women  must  be  abandoned 
and  recognized  for  what  it  is,  a  gross  waste  of  national 
resources . 

But  this  is  not  the  only  defect  in  our  industrial  system 
which  has  been  brought  to  light  by  the  war.  Another 
has  been  exposed  in  the  waste  involved  in  systematic  under- 
payment and  overwork.  The  higher  wages  earned  by 
women  during  the  war,  notwithstanding  the  great  strain 
of  long  hours  and  (in  many  cases)  a  seven  days*  week, 
have  been  accompanied  by  an  actual  diminution  in  the 
cost  of  sick  leave  in  the  women's  insurance  societies.  Thte 
published  returns  show  that  while  this  was  2*60  pence 
per  week  in  19 14  it  fell  to  2* 04  pence  per  week  in  1915. 
This  has  been  attributed  to  the  better  food  that  the 
workers  have  been  able  to  enjoy  in  consequence  of  their 
better  wages.'  The  unexpectedly  high  sick  leave  in 
'  Annual  Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  for  the  year  1915. 

lite. 


2o8  NATIONAL     EFFICIENCY 

women's  insurance  societies  before  the  war  may  therefore 
be  reasonably  believed  to  be  due  to  malnutrition.  I  can 
contribute  a  fact  bearing  on  this  point  from  the  history  of 
women  in  the  Savings  Bank.  When  Mr.  Fawcett  was 
Postmaster-General  he  induced  the  Treasury  to  advance 
the  initial  wage  paid  to  women  in  the  Savings  Bank  from 
£40  to  £65  a  year.  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  who  then 
represented  the  Treasury,  told  him  this  was  the  highest 
proportionate  advance  which  had  ever  been  sanctioned  by 
the  Department.  After  it  had  been  in  operation  a  few 
months  Mr.  Fawcett  inquired  of  the  lady  at  the  head  of 
the  women's  side  of  the  Savings  Bank  what  had  been  its 
general  result.  She  replied,  "  They  dine  more  frequently." 
It  is  evident  to  most  of  us  that  "  dining  frequently,"  at 
least  as  frequently  as  once  a  day,  is  an  important  element 
in  the  preservation  of  health.  A  rise  of  wages  from  15s. 
to  25s.  a  week  enabling  women  to  enjoy  this  indulgence 
must  make  for  good  health  and  consequent  productive 
capacity . 

Experience  gained  during  the  war  has  also  revealed  the 
bad  economy  of  long  hours  and  the  advantage,  from  the 
mere  economic  point  of  view,  of  the  Sunday  rest.  The  Chief 
Inspector  of  Factories  reports  that  fresh  demands  for  per- 
mission to  work  on  Sundays  are  now  rarely  received,  and  are 
confined  to  cases  where  sudden  and  unexpected  emergency 
arises.  The  undesirability  of  Sunday  work  is  also  insisted 
upon  by  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  The 
shortening  of  the  hours  of  work  has  not  infrequently  been 
accompanied  by  an  actual  increase  of  output,  and  it  has 
been  proved  that  over -fatigue  on  the  part  of  the  workers 
greatly  adds  to  the  liability  to  accidents.  The  provision 
of  canteens,  messroom  accommodation,  ambulance -rooms, 
with  qualified  nurses  in  attendance,  rest-rooms  for  girls  and 
women  have  proved  extremely  useful,  and  are  likely  "  to 
leave  behind,"  according  to  the  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories, 
"a  permanent  improvement  in  factory  life."  The  Chief 
Lady  Inspector  emphasizes  these  points.  She  urges  that 
more  should  be  done  to  shorten  the  hours  of  women  who 
are  still  in  many  cases  working  a  twelve -hour  day,  and 
she  cites  one  instance  of  the  illegal  employment  of  girls 
of  thirteen  and  fourteen  for  fourteen  and  fifteen  hours  a 
day.  Her  report  states  that  a  prosecution  followed,  and 
overtime  was  in  the  Yorkshire  textile  factories  very 
materially    diminished.      Miss    Anderson    adc^s  ;     "  As    im- 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE      209 

proved  organization  to  meet  war  pressure  has  proceeded, 
and  a  supply  of  women's  reserve  labour  is  being  brought 
forth  sufficient  for  the  great  industrial  demands,  all  excuse 
for  the  essentially  wasteful  expedient  of  overtime  and  night 
employment  of  young  girl  labour  vanishes,  except  for  the 
most  extraordinarily  sudden  emergencies."  Miss  Anderson 
points  out  that  as  early  in  the  war  as  1 9 1 5  at  least  two 
hundred  thousand  women  were  being  employed  in  engineer- 
ing work  and  other  allied  trades,  and  had  set  a  "  fashion 
in  attracting  large  supplies  of  women  of  a  good  type  not 
hitherto  employed  industrially."  Mr.  Kellaway,  M.P.  for 
Bedford,  parliamentary  secretary  to  Dr.  Addison  (of  the 
Ministry  of  Munitions),  speaking  in  July  19 16,  said  that 
in  1 9 14  there  were  184,000  women  engaged  in  war  indus- 
tries. "  To-day  there  were  666,000.  .  .  .  The  labour 
situation  had  been  to  a  considerable  extent  saved  by  our 
women.  .  .  .  The  women  of  France  were  doing  wonders 
in  munition  making,  but  our  women  munition  workers  beat 
the  world."  '  This  is  the  reservoir  of  women's  labour  to 
which  Lord  Revelstoke  referred  as  one  of  the  mainstays 
of  England's  financial  stability.  It  is  strange,  as  the  Chief 
Lady  Inspector  of  Factories  points  out,  that  the  continuous 
demand  which  factory  inspectors  have  made  for  many  years 
for  an  increase  in  the  number  of  women  inspectors,  and 
also  for  the  provision  of  rest-rooms,  canteens,  ambulances, 
nurses,  means  of  personal  cleanliness,  etc.,  should  have 
passed  unheeded  in  the  time  of  peace,  and  that  the  nation's 
eyes  should  only  have  been  opened  to  their  necessity  by 
the  conflagration  caused  by  a  great  war. 

Turning  now  to  the  position  of  the  professional  women 
and  how  it  has  been  affected  by  the  war,  no  such  startling 
changes  can  be  recorded  as  have  been  wrought  in  the 
position  of  industrial  women.  It  is  true  that  in  the  medical 
profession  the  value  of  women's  services  has  received  more 
public  recognition  than  ever  before.  The  then  Prime 
Minister,  together  with  an  ex -Prime  Minister  and  a  former 
Governor -General  of  India,  in  a  letter  to  the  Press  com- 
mended the  claim  of  the  London  School  of  Medicine  for 
Women  to  the  support  of  the  public.  Women  can  raise 
the  several  thousands  which  they  need  for  the  extension 
of  their  school  or  for  the  erection  of  a  new  hospital  almost 
as  easily  as  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  can  get 
millions  by  adding   ^d.   to   the  sugar  duty   or    is.   to   the 

'  Manchester  Guardian,  July  8,  1916. 
14 


2IO  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

income-tax.  One  of  the  least  creditable  manifestations  of 
the  Trade  Union  spirit  in  the  medical  profession  has  been 
the  way  in  which  before  the  war  medicaJ  women,  graduates 
as  well  as  students,  have  been  debarred  from  clinical  experi- 
ence in  the  great  hospitals,  and  in  none  more  rigidly  than 
in  the  hospitals  for  women  and  children.  In  London  they 
had  only  their  own  small  hospital  in  the  Euston  Road  and 
the  Royal  Free  Hospital,  entrance  to  which  their  prede- 
cessors had  bought  for  them  by  annual  payments.  Now 
an  arrangement  has  been  concluded  between  the  London 
School  of  Medicine  for  Women  and  the  Governors  of  St. 
Mary's  Hospital  for  receiving  women  students  ;  and,  under 
the  pressure  of  war  conditions,  opportunities  for  clinical 
experience  for  women  in  other  hospitals  are  being  granted. 
Charing  Cross  Hospital  and  King's  College  Hospital  being 
among  the  earliest  to  make  satisfactory  arrangements  for 
teaching  women.  The  long  boycott  of  women  medical 
students  in  Edinburgh  University  has  been  brought  to  an 
end.  Almost  directly  after  the  appointment  of  Sir  James 
Ewing  as  the  new  Principal,  early  in  July  191 6,  it  was 
agreed  by  a  large  majority  at  a  meeting  of  the  Senate  to 
recommend  to  the  University  Court  that  women  should  be 
admitted  to  the  University  classes,  provided  suitable 
arrangements  could  be  made.  The  Court  agreed  to  this 
on  July  loth,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  make 
recommendations  for  carrying  it  into  effect.  To  break  down, 
whether  in  London  or  Edinburgh,  the  exclusion  of  women 
students  from  clinical  training,  except  within  a  very  limited 
range,  ought  to  be  followed  by  excellent  results.  WhiLe 
it  was  maintained  it  acted  as  an  unfair  handicap  on  the 
women , 

The  story  of  the  relations  between  the  British  Red  Cross 
and  medical  women's  organizations  has  in  it  almost  farcical 
elements.  In  the  first  few  months  of  the  war  the  British 
Red  Cross  refused  all  recognition  to  hospitals  officered  by 
medical  women  for  foreign  service,  and  the  Army  medical 
department  also  refused  offers  of  help  from  highly  qualified 
medical  women.  The  reason  alleged  was  the  supposed 
reluctance  of  the  British  soldier  to  be  medically  or  surgically 
treated  by  women.  Why  women  nurses  should  be  wel- 
comed and  women  doctors  disapproved  was  nor  explained. 
Our  Allies  had  no  such  prejudices,  and  therefore  in  the 
first  months  of  the  war  British  women  doctors,  anxious  to 
serve  the  wounded,  had  no  choice  but  to  place  themselves 


lOSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    tiFE     an. 

under  the  French  or  Belgian  Red  Cross.  The  hospital 
opened  in  Paris  in  September  191 4  by  Dr.  Louisa  Ander- 
son and  Dr.  Flora  Murray  was  consequently  under  the 
French  Red  Cross.  It  was  splendidly  organized,  and  was 
one  of  the  show  hospitals  in  Paris,  second  to  none  in 
efficiency  and  in  popularity  among  our  wounded  men.  Dr. 
Alice  Hutchison  had  a  typhoid  hospital  in  Calais  in  1914, 
so  well  run  that  she  had  the  lowest  death-rate  of  any  similar 
hospital  at  the  same  time  and  place.  The  highest  praise 
was  earned,  and  well  earned,  by  English  women  doctors 
who  had  hospitals  in  Antwerp  at  the  time  of  its  fall.  Their 
courage  under  fire  and  their  devotion  and  that  of  the  nurses 
to  their  wounded  men  were  fully  appreciated  by  the  Press 
and  by  the  public  all  over  the  civilized  world.  Still,  the 
British  Red  Cross  and  the  British  Army  medical  authori- 
ties could  not  bring  themselves  to  recognize  British  medical 
women.  The  National  Union  of  Women's  Suffrage  Societies 
was  sending  out  their  Scottish  women's  hospitals  for  foreign 
service  in  the  autumn  of  19 14.  Their  first  hospital  at 
Royaumont,  near  Creil,  had  to  be  under  the  French  Red 
Cross,  and  their  second  hospital  at  Troyes  was  under  the 
French  Army  Medical  Department  ;  not  that  they  would 
not  have  preferred  working  under  their  own  national 
organizations,   but   that    was    not   possible  at   the   time. 

The  first  British  official  recognition  of  the  value  of  the 
woman  doctor  in  war-time  was  in  February  19 1 5,  when 
Surgeon -General  Sir  Alfred  Keogh  placed  Dr.  Louisa 
Anderson  and  Dr.  Flora  Murray  at  the  head  of  a  military 
hospital  of  520  beds  in  London,  not  giving  them  com- 
missions, but  allowing  them  the  rank  and  ratings  of  majors 
in  the  Army  and  treating  them  in  all  respects  as  well  as 
if  they  had  been  men.  He  spoke  in  public  of  the  work 
of  women  doctors  at  the  front  as  being  beyond  all  praise  ; 
it  was  an  example,  he  said,  of  how  such  work  ought  to 
be  done  (The  Times,  February  19,  191 5).  No  British 
women  had,  however,  at  that  time  been  authorized  by  British 
authority  to  give  their  services  as  doctors  or  surgeons  to 
their  own  countrymen  abroad. 

In  May  1 9 1 5  Lord  Methuen,  as  Governor  of  Malta, 
stopped  a  ship  conveying  one  of  the  N.U.W.S.S.  hospital 
units,  then  on  its  way  to  Serbia,  and  bade  them  come  to 
the  help  of  British  wounded  men  who  were  pouring  in 
from  the  Dardanelles.  This  of  course  they  did  with  great 
zeal  an ^    efficiency.      When   they   left   Lord   Methuen    sent 


2  12  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

a  letter  of  thanks,  in  which  he  said  :  "  They  leave  here 
blessed  by  myself,  surgeons,  nurses,  and  patients  alike,  for 
they  have  proved  themselves  most  capable  and  untiring 
workers."  Their  heroic  work  in  Serbia  in  coping  with 
and  stamping  out  the  typhus  epidemic  in  the  spring  of 
1 9 1 5  is  well  known .  Their  courage  in  the  black  hour 
of  Serbia's  devastation  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year 
is  also  now  an  old  story  ;  how  some  did  the  marvellous  trek 
of  three  himdred  miles  across  the  snow-bound  mountains  till 
they  reached  the  Adriatic,  while  others,  imder  Dr.  Elsie 
Ingles  and  Dr.  Alice  Hutchison,  stayed  on  at  their  posts, 
working  to  the  last  until  they  became  prisoners  in  the  hands 
of  Germany,  the  way  they  kept  up  their  courage  and  good 
spirits  through  every  insult  (not  from  Austrians)  and  hard- 
ship— all  this  is  well  known,  but  it  did  not  cause  any 
relaxation  in  the  determination  of  the  British  Red  Cross 
not  to  recognize  women  doctors.  A  kind  of  ostrich  policy 
seems  to  have  been  adopted,  for  the  word  must  have  gone 
forth  to  pretend  that  medical  women  were  not  doctors, 
but  nurses  :  so  paragraphs  duly  appeared  in  the  Press, 
"  Return  of  Nurses  from  Serbia,"  and  with  no  mention  at 
all  of  the  gallant  women  who  had  led  them.  The  good 
offices  of  the  British  Red  Cross  were,  however,  extended 
to  the  medical  units,  officered  entirely  by  women,  sent  to 
Russia  by  the  National  Union  of  Women's  Suffrage 
Societies,  and  very  valuable  aid  was  extended  to  them  in 
the  matter  of  identification  certificates  and  in  the  forward- 
ing of  equipment,  with  the  advantage  and  protection  of 
the  Red  Cross  labels.  After  declaring  in  May  that  nothing 
would  induce  them  to  send  medical  women  abroad  for 
Army  service  at  the  beginning  of  July  191 6,  the  R.A.M.C. 
asked  for  the  services  of  forty  women  doctors  for  foreign 
service,  and  would  have  liked  eighty  if  they  could  have  been 
spared  from  their  work  at  home.  The  whole  story  is  an 
illustration  of  the  prejudices  which  women  still  have  to 
overcome,  of  the  Trades  Union  spirit  among  the  men  in 
the  medical  profession,  of  the  gradual  influence  of  war 
conditions  in  breaking  it  down,  and  of  the  gain  to  the 
nation  of  utilizing  the  capabilities  of  women  and  the  corre- 
sponding waste  of  not  doing  so.  Dr.  Weinberg,  Chef  de 
Laboratoire  in  the  Pasteur  Institute,  Paris,  was  lecturing 
to  the  medical  profession  in  Glasgow  in  February  19 16 
on  gas  gangrene.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks  he  paid 
a  remarkable  tribute  to  the  N.U.W.S.S.  hospital  at  Royau- 


POSITION    OF    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     213 

mont.  "He  had,"  he  said,  "seen  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  military  hospitals,  but  none  the  organization  and  direc- 
tion of  which  won  his  admiration  so  completely.  Every 
duty  in  the  hospital  from  those  of  the  chief  surgeon  to 
the  chauffeur  of  the  motor -ambulances  was  performed  by 
women.  He  was  impelled  to  express  his  admiration  of 
the  manner  in  which  cases  were  treated.  .  .  ."  About  the 
bacteriological  department,  which  was  arranged  by  Dr. 
Elizabeth  Butler,  Dr.  Weinberg  was  equally  enthusiastic. 
He  was  struck  by  the  most  perfect  order  which  prevailed, 
notwithstanding  the  apparent  entire  absence  of  anything 
in  the  form  of  rigid  disciplinary  measures.  He  atttri- 
buted  this  ".  .  .to  the  soldiers*  natural  recognition  of 
the  excellent  services  and  attention  given  by  the  whole 
staff,  and  particularly  by  the  chief  surgeon,  Miss  Ivens, 
who  was  ably  assisted  by  numerous  colleagues,  all  inspired 
by  the  same  devotion."  ' 

Fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  all  this  capacity  for  service 
would  have  lain  dormant,  because  it  could  have  had  no 
outlet  ;  the  training  for  it  would  have  been  absolutely 
inaccessible  : 

Sure,  he,  that  made  us  with  such  large  discourse, 
Looking  before  and  after,  gave  us  not 
That  capability  and  god-like  reason 
To  fast  in  us  unused. 

Tlie  women  who  have  shown  themselves  capable  of  this 
great  work  would  have  been  condemned  to  the  sort  of 
life  described  in  the  first  volume  of  Florence  Nightingale's 
Life,  a  round  of  trivialities,  a  sort  of  cage-bird  life.  But, 
as  her  biographer  remarks,  "  Thousands  of  women  to-day 
are  bom  free  "  ;  but  it  was  at  a  great  price  that  the 
pioneers  had   to  buy  their   freedom. 

And  to-day  their  freedom  is  by  no  means  complete. 
They  have  won  their  way  into  one  great  and  splendid  pro- 
fession ;  but  nearly  every  other  profession  is  still  closed 
to  them  in  this  country.      Important  educational  posts  are 

'  On  Saturday,  July  22,  1916,  the  Figaro  had  a  long  article  expressing  the 
warmest  admiration  of  the  National  Union  of  Women  Suffrage  Societies' 
Hospitals  in  France.  After  speaking  of  the  general  work  of  the  Suffragists 
in  their  own  country,  the  paper  goes  on  to  describe  the  hospitals  which  they 
have  organized  in  France,  which,  it  says,  "  are  marvellous  from  all  points  of 
view."  The  article  concludes,  'These  women  are  putting  their  whole  soul 
into  the  work  without  any  thought  of  recompense,  without  vainglory,  without 
any  motive  but  the  desire  to  alleviate  pain." 


214  NATIONAL    EFFICIENCY 

open  to  them  ;  they  have  themselves  created  a  new  pro- 
fession in  nursing.'  But  both  branches  of  the  law  are 
banged,  barred,  and  bolted  against  them.  No  woman  can 
become  a  chartered  accountant,  or  take  Holy  Orders,  nor 
is  there  any  authorized  channel  by  which  women  can  enter 
upon  the  higher  posts  of  responsibility  in  the  Civil  Service. 
The  CivU  Service  Commission,  which  reported  in  1914, 
some  months  before  the  war,  recommended  "  that  specially 
qualified  women  should  be  eligible  for  appointment  to  par- 
ticular administrative  situations  in  such  departments  as  .  .  . 
the  Board  of  Education,  the  Local  Government  Board,  the 
Labour  Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  National 
Health  Insurance  Commission,  and  the  Home  Department." 
Nothing  was  done  to  carry  out  this  recommendation.  It 
may  be  thought  that  the  outbreak  of  war  was  a  sufficient 
excuse  for  doing  nothing.  On  the  other  hand,  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  war,  the  great  need  of  men  to  create  the  new 
armies,  provided  an  additional  reason  for  taking  steps 
quickly  to  introduce  qualified  women  into  the  Civil  Service, 
so  as  to  set  free  more  and  more  men  for  military  service. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  that  if  action  had  been  taken 
quickly  on  the  lines  recommended  by  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion the  task  would  have  been  considerably  simplified,  and 
a  fairly  large  group  of  women  would  long  before  the 
third  year  of  the  war  have  received  sufficient  training  to 
enable  them  to  do  the  work  now  being  done  by  men. 
Since  the  war  began  a  few  women  have  been  introduced 
here  and  there  into  higher  posts  in  the  Civil  Service,  but 
there  has  apparently  been  no  settled  pian  and  little  or  no 
co-ordination  between  the  various  governmental  departmlents 
— one  department  appearing  hardly  to  know  what  another 
department  was  doing.  An  instance  has  been  discreetly 
brought  to  light  in  which  two  women  were  appointed  by 
two  departments — unknown  to  each  other — to  carry  out  much 
the  same  job.  However,  the  women  appointed  with  much 
good  sense  met  together  and  arranged  a  reasonable  division 
of  the  work  between  them. 

•  The  low  level  frc>m  which  Florence  Nightingale  and  her  successors  have 
lifted  nursing  is  well  illustrated  by  a  letter  written  in  1856  quoted  in  the  "  Life  of 
Lord  Granville  "  (vol.  i.  p.  136) :  "  Lady  Pam  thinks  the  Nightingale  Fund  [for 
training'nurses]  great  humbug.  The  nurses  are  very  good  now  ;  perhaps  they 
do  drink  a  little,  but  so  do  ladies'  monthly  nurses,  and  nothing  can  be  better 
than  them  {sic).  Poor  people,  it  must  be  so  tiresome  sitting  up  at  night,  and  if 
they  do  drink  a  little  too  much  they  arc  turned  away  and  others  got," 


POSITION    OF.    WOMEN    IN    ECONOMIC    LIFE     215 

Eloquent  and  powerful  appeals  have  been  made  by 
political  leaders  to  Trade  Unionists  in  the  name  of 
patriotism  and  national  danger  to  give  up  their  Trade 
Union  restrictions  on  the  labour  of  women  ;  and,  on  the 
whole,  the  Trade  Unionists  have  responded  generously  to 
these  appeals  ;  but  the  professional  classes  have  not 
followed  suit.  The  workmen  have  given  up  their  exclu- 
siveness,  but  the  members  of  the  Civil  Service,  the 
lawyers  and  members  of  the  other  professions  show  no 
sign  of  giving  up  theirs.  When  will  they  begin  to 
practise  themselves  what  they  have  recommended  to 
others  ? 

We  have  made  a  beginning  towards  repairing  the  waste 
of  which  we  have  been  guilty  in  not  using  the  powers 
and  capabilities  of  women  ;  but  there  is  much  stiU  to  do  ; 
in  many  respects  other  countries  in  this  matter  are  far 
ahead  of  us.  The  commercial  position  of  women  in  France 
is  extremely  good.  In  England  women  can  hardly  be  said 
to  have  any  commercial  position  at  all.  In  nearly  all 
European  countries,  as  well  as  in  America  and  in  several 
of  the  overseas  Dominions  of  Great  Britain,  women  become 
lawyers,  and  practise  their  profession  with  distinction.  Why 
should  England  be  half  a  century  behind  them?  There 
is  no  waste  so  great  as  the  waste  of  the  powers  and  gifts 
of  the  human  beings  who  make  up  the  nation.  Let  us 
resolve  to  make  an  end  of  it. 


Ill 

SOCIAL    REFORM 


:     :  CHAPTER    XIII 

The  Rehabilitation  of  Rural  Life 

By   the    bishop   OF   EXETER 

It  is  hard  to  over-estimate  the  value  to  the  country  of 
having  a  numerous  and  prosperous  rural  population.  Even 
before  the  war  we  thought  it  important.  We  realized  that 
the  country -bred  children  are  healthier  than  even  those 
raised  in  the  healthiest  quarters  of  our  large  towns,  and  the 
toll  that  is  paid  in  child -life  by  the  big  city  alone  recom- 
mended every  measure  that  encouraged  the  increase  of  the 
rural  population.  And  when  we  added  to  this  fact  that  a 
rural  population  is  generally  contented  and  happy,  even  in 
spite  of  wages  being  low,  we  brought  into  the  balance  two 
considerations  of  the  greatest  importance.  For,  after  all, 
the  happiness  and  health  of  the  population  should  be  the 
great  object  of  government  ;  and  though  money  and  wealth 
are  as  a  rule  necessary  to  promote  these  objects,  it  is 
possible  to  over-estimate  the  importance  of  money  and  to 
forget  that  it  is,  after  all,  only  a  means  to  an  end,  and  that 
a  happy  and  healthy  population  is  what  every  statesman 
should  strive  to  create.  Besides,  a  rural  j)opulation  is 
naturally  sane,  sane  because  it  is  healthy  and  happy.  A 
friend  once  pointed  out  to  me  how  far  more  sane  were  the 
politics  of  rural  than  urban  France.  I  think  that  a  similar 
thesis  could  be  maintained  in  England.  A  countryman  may 
be  less  educated,  but  he  has  a  far  better  judgment  than  the 
townsman.  We  realized  all  this  in  peace  time,  and  we  there- 
fore deeply  regretted  the  flow  of  the  country  population  to 
the  towns. 

But  the  war  has  revealed  two  other  facts,  which  from  their 
importance  throw  everything  else  into  the  shade,  and  make 
the  formation  of  a  large  and  prosperous  rural  population 
one  of  the  first  objects  of  sound  statecraft.     First,  we  have 

a»9 


220  SOCIAL    REFORM 

realized  how  important  the  countryman  is  as  a  soldier.  Not 
only  does  he  make  a  finer  soldier  than  his  town  brother, 
but  he  is  not  addicted  to  the  celibate  life  or  to  any 
Malthusian  plan  which  diminishes  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion. The  countryman  as  a  rule  marries  and  has  a  large 
family,  and  therefore  as  long  as  the  rural  population  is  large 
we  may  hope  to  have  a  numerous  army  to  defend  our  Island. 
Secondly,  the  increase  of  production  of  food  in  our  own 
country  is  a  matter  of  prime  importance.  Many  have  been 
shocked  at  the  vast  amount  of  land  that  lies  fallow  in 
England.  They  will  be  surprised  to  learn  how  much  of  that 
land  was  cultivated  at  one  time.  We  are  told  that  three  and 
a  half  million  acres  have  gone  out  of  cultivation  and  been 
turned  from  arable  to  grass  land  since  1872.  One  has  only 
to  travel  by  train  and  note  the  number  of  pasture  fields  that 
have  once  been  under  the  plough  to  realize  how  serious  has 
been  the  movement  towards  diminishing  the  production  of 
food  in  England.  Yet  the  production  of  food  is  of  vital 
importance  to  us  in  case  of  a  war,  and  it  can  never  be 
accomplished  without  two  things  :  a  better  system  of  agri- 
culture, and,  what  must  be  associated  with  that  system,  a 
more  numerous  and  a  more  efficient  rural  population. 
Without  a  large  and  efficient  rural  population  more  ex- 
tensive cultivation  is  an  impossibility.  All  the  newer  ideas 
involve  not  only  more  labour,  but  what  I  am  afraid  the 
farmers  of  England  do  not  realize,  more  science  and 
more  knowledge  of  machinery — in  fact  a  more  educated 
labourer.  '  r  r  -^     " 

One  hears  constant  complaints  against  farmers  and  land- 
lords for  not  breaking  up  pastures  during  the  present  war. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  takes  much  labour  to 
break  up  pasture,  and  labour  is  the  one  thing  we  have  not 
got  at  the  present  time.  And  until  the  land  has  been  cul- 
tivated for  a  year  or  two  the  returns  are  very  disappointing*. 
Much  of  the  land  before  it  could  be  touched  would  need 
draining,  which  is  of  course  out  of  the  question.  The 
increase  of  the  cultivated  area  must  be  a  question  of 
development  and  labour.  It  can  be  g'radually  extended  if 
we  have  a  large  and  efficient  population  living  on  the  land. 
Therefore  the  increase  of  our  food  supp'lies  furnishes  us 
with  another  important  argument  for  the  rehabilitation  of 
rural  Ijfe. 


THE    REHABILITATION    OF    RURAL    LIFE     221 


I.  Causes  of  Depopulation. 

The  first  and  principal  cause  of  depopulation  is  the  one 
to  which  we  have  referred,  the  conversion  of  arable  into 
pasture.  To  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  factor  one 
must  remember  that  arable  requires  eight  times  as  much 
labour  as  pasture.  In  the  agricultural  depressions  land  went 
out  of  cultivation  and  became  grass  land.  Land  "  tumbled 
back  "  into  grass.  Sometimes  it  has  gone  farther  and 
become  waste  land,  and  the  thorn -tree  and  the  rush  occupy 
land  that  should  be  producing  food  and  giving  work  for  a 
rural  population.  The  chief  reason  for  this  most  regrettable 
development  has  been  the  low  prices  of  the  eighties  and 
nineties.  We  all  remember  the  ruin  of  the  high  farmer.  It 
began  with  the  bad  years  'jS,  '79,  and  was  gradually  com- 
pleted through  the  next  fifteen  years.  The  disaster  which 
fell  upon  those  who  had  done  their  best  to  improve  the 
cultivation  of  the  land  at  that  time,  and  the  little  sympathy 
that  was  extended  to  them  by  the  State,  frightened  all  classes. 
The  landlord  ceased  to  put  capital  into  his  land,  many  of 
the  farmers'  sons  sought  other  means  of  livelihood,  the  flow 
to  Canada  became  rapid,  while  all  the  best  boys  in  the 
village  school  went  to  the  town  or  anywhere  but  on  the  farm  ; 
wages  failed  to  rise  with  the  general  rise  all  over  the  country, 
and  in  many  districts  it  was  only  the  residuum  of  the 
countryside  who  remained.  The  subsequent  rise  in  the  price 
of  wheat,  which  has  now  reached  such  an  extraordinary 
height,  never  really  remedies  the  condition.  For  no  one 
is  willing  to  put  capital  into  the  land  without  some  pledge 
that  prices  shall  be  maintained,  and  without  capital  you 
cannot  increase  the  cultivated  area.  All  who  remember  the 
crash  of  the  eighties  ask  themselves  whether,  when  the  war 
is  over,  they  may  not  be  left  with  great  responsibilities  and 
low  prices.  If  it  were  possible  by  a  sliding  scale  to  fix  a 
minimum  figure  for  wheat,  the  tendency  would  be  the  other 
way.  But  without  this  the  re -population  of  rural  England 
must  be  a  matter  of  considerable  difficulty.  The  future 
development  of  either  Canada  or  Argentina  may  again 
lower  the  price  of  wheat  and  spread  ruin  among  our  own 
agricultural  community.  Subject  to  this  first  and  vital 
consideration  there  are  several  other  important  causes  of 
depopulation. 


232  SOCIAL    REFORM 


II.  Big  Estates  versus  Small  Owners. 

Undoubtedly  in  the  past  the  big  estate  has  been  most 
beneficial  to  English  agriculture.  The  energy  and  go  which 
many  great  landowners  showed  in  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century  has  been  the  means  of  bringing  much  land  under 
cultivation.  They  took  the  lead  in  great  works  of  arterial 
drainage,  in  the  promotion  of  railways,  in  the  development 
of  scientific  agriculture,  and  the  debt  that  England  owes 
to  their  energy  and  vigour,  though  rarely  acknowledged,  is 
very  great.  Such  a  work  as  "  Young's  Surveys  "  shows  how 
much  landowners  did  in  the  Napoleonic  wars  to  promote  the 
food  production  of  the  country.  And  at  that  time  game- 
keeping  and  foxhunting  were  really  beneficial,  for  they  kept 
a  class  of  intelligent  resident  capitalists  interested  in  the 
country's  welfare,  and  if  the  farmers  grumbled  at  the  damage 
done  by  the  game  it  was  when  they  forgot  that  the  lowness 
of  their  rents  was  because  the  game  rights  were  not  let  with 
the  land.  But  now  all  this  has  changed  and  is  changing. 
The  large  landowner  tends  to  live  less  and  less  on  his 
property.  He  goes  to  London,  Monte  Carlo,  Switzerland, 
and  a  hundred  other  resorts.  When  he  does  come  down  for 
his  big  shoot  the  last  thing  he  wants  is  trouble.  Besides 
which,  he  does  not  look  on  the  ownership  of  land  as  a 
business  matter,  and  he  as  little  thinks  of  making  money 
out  of  his  land  as  he  does  out  of  his  wife's  diamond  tiara  or 
his  own  motor-car.  The  result  is  that  a  great  deal  of  the 
land  is  under-rented,  and  this  more  or  less  suits  the  temper  of 
mind  of  many  of  the  farmers.  As  a  class  farmers  have  little 
ambition  and  share  the  dislike  of  their  landlords  to  trouble 
and  activity.  With  the  low  rent  the  landlord  requires,  the 
farmer  has  no  need  to  bring  more  land  imder  the  plough 
or  in  any  way  to  improve  the  condition  of  his  holding.  In 
fact,  he  not  uncommonly  lets  land  drift  into  almost  uncul- 
tivateable  conditions.  All  this  reacts  on  the  agricultural 
labourer.  The  demand  for  labour  is  in  normal  peace  times 
very  small,  and  what  is  equally  regrettable  is  that  the 
standard  required  by  the  farmer  is  low.  He  does  not  want 
intelligent  people,  he  thoroughly  despises  any  scientific 
development  that  would  need  intelligence,  he  mistrusts  even 
those  agricultural  implements  that  his  Canadian  son  has 
used  these  twenty  years.  What  he  wants  is  a  submissive  sort 
of  man  who  is  willing  to  work  for  the  miserable  pittance 


THE    REHABILITATION    OF    RURAL    LIFE     223 

that  he  is  justiiied  in  giving  in  view  of  the  limited  production 
of  his  farm.  The  farmer  does  not  believe  in  high  wages 
and  plenty  of  labour  justiiied  by  a  proportionately  large 
increase  of  farm  produce.  If  the  land  was  an  ordinary  com- 
modity no  doubt  the  evil  would  cure  itself.  The  landowner, 
in  view  of  the  poor  return  the  land  was  giving,  would  be 
glad  to  sell,  the  sleepy  farmer  would  be  hustled  out  of  the 
way,  the  demand  for  a  higher  class  of  agricultural  labourer 
would  be  brisk,  and  in  response  to  that  demand  wages  would 
steadily  rise.  And  no  doubt  after  the  war  the  present 
tendency  of  landowners  to  sell  their  land  may  produce  such 
a  development.  Even  if  landowners  are  unwiUing  to  do 
so,  there  will  be  a  growing  necessity,  owing  to  higher 
taxation,  to  make  land  produce  more  money,  and  it  would 
be  well  if  those  who  are  in  possession  of  extensive  estates 
would  consider  that  what  England  wants  is  not  so  much 
economy  as  greater  production.  To  make  good  the  losses 
of  the  war  we  want  every  man  and  every  acre  of  land  to 
give  their  maximum  production.  This  increase  of  pro- 
duction will  be  hampered,  no  doubt,  by  want  of  capital ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  great  deal  might  be  accomplished 
by  more  education  in  agricultural  matters  and  owners  taking 
more  trouble  to  understand  its  problems.  One  would  like 
to  see  a  knowledge  of  agriculture  included  in  the  normal 
curriculum  of  all  educational  establishments  for  landowners' 
sons.  The  Eton  boy  should  be  taught  to  milk  the  college 
cow  and  to  clean  out  the  byre,  and  the  Christ  Church  under- 
graduate to  plough  the  college  farm,  just  as  their  sailor 
brothers  have  to  learn  to  splice  a  cable,  or  their  cousins 
in  the  engineering  works  to  use  the  lathe  and  the  fitters' 
tools.  Under  these  conditions  agriculture  might  receive 
a  great  impetus.  The  big  estate  might  regain  the  important 
position  it  once  occupied  and  become  a  large  business 
concern.  The  tenant  farmer  would  disappear,  and  his  place 
would  be  taken  by  highly  educated  specialists.  Just  as  in 
the  industrial  concern  there  are  managers  of  various  depart- 
ments, buyers  and  travellers,  so  it  would  be  on  the  big 
estate.  For  as  these  methods  tend  to  economy  and  efficiency 
in  the  industrial  world,  so  they  would  in  the  agricultural 
world.  The  late  Lord  Salisbury  farmed  a  large  portion  of 
his  Hatfield  estate  twenty  years  ago  and  introduced  electricity 
as  the  motive  power  for  agricultural  operations.  The  plan 
was  still  in  the  experimental  stage  when  his  return  to  office 
compelled  him  to  put  aside  all  such   interesting  pursuits. 


224  SOCIAL    REFORM 

With  the  development  of  electricity  one  might  well  expect 
to  see  large  estates  farmed  by  electrical  power.  Such  a 
development  would  economically  require  a  bigger  unit  than 
the  ordinary  farm.  The  present  system  of  agriculture  is 
composed  of  units  too  small  to  profit  by  the  advances  in 
engineering  and  chemistry.  But  even  if  the  tenant  farmer 
were  preserved — and  many  of  us  are  fond  of  him  as  a  class 
— he  would  be  much  assisted  and  inspired  by  the  influence 
of  his  landlord.  The  landowner  would  take  the  lead  in 
the  various  co-operative  undertakings.  His  experimental 
farm  would  test  and  prove  the  value  of  the  new  machine  or 
the  scientific  discovery.  His  personal  influence  would  com- 
bat the  economic  and  scientific  heresies  to  which  the  agri- 
cultural mind  is  prone,  such  as  low  wages  being  an  economy, 
and  that  a  practical  man  needs  no  knowledge  of  the  theory 
of  agricultural  science.  But,  above  all,  he  might  improve 
the  conditions  of  the  agricultural  labourer.  One  would 
hke,  for  instance,  to  see  some  of  the  landowners  inserting  a 
wages  clause  in  their  new  agreements.  Better  wages  are 
necessary  if  we  are  to  induce  men  to  return  to  the  land  after 
the  war.  Better  wages  for  a  better  class  of  man,  who  is 
capable  of  intelligently  working  all  the  newer  plans  for 
increasing  the  yield  of  the  land. 

III.  Small-owners  and  Small-holders. 

Many  look  to  a  development  in  the  opposite  direction 
to  improve  the  conditions  of  country  life.  They  plead  for 
the  small-holder  against  the  big  farmer.  One  cannot  under- 
stand how  a  small -holding  can  be  a  permanent  success, 
though  under  the  present  inflated  condition  of  agriculture 
every  form  of  cultivation  of  land  may  succeed.  The  small- 
holder labours  under  so  many  disadvantages.  The  rent,  if 
economic,  must  be  high.  It  is  obviously  cheaper  to  build 
one  cow-house  for  two  hundred  cows  than  fifty  for  four  cows 
each.  How  can  a  man  who  can  only  buy  by  the  hundred- 
weight compete  with  men  who  buy  by  the  ton  ?  Again,  he 
is  handicapped  by  being  unable  to  use  machines.  The 
people  who  talk  about  the  co-operation  of  small -holders  in 
the  matter  of  machinery  forget  the  uncertainty  of  our 
English  climate.  Supposing  there  is  a  fine  week  in  hay 
time  and  one  small -holder  has  the  reaping-machine,  he 
will  cut  his  crop,  make  it,  and  prosper.  The  next  holder 
will  fall  on  a  wet  period,  lose  his  crop,  and  be  ruined.     How 


THE    REHABILITATION    OF,    RURAL    LIFE      225 

is  it  possible  that  such  a  system  can  work?  Both  of  them 
subscribe  towards  the  machine.  One  has  all  the  benefit 
and  the  other  none.  If  there  is  to  be  any  co-operation  at 
all  it  must  be  complete  co-operation.  The  small-holders 
must  be  formed  into  a  company  with  a  manager  at  their 
head,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  they  must  share  equally 
the  profits  of  their  holding.  Any  other  form  of  co-operation 
is  an  impossibility,  owing  to  the  irregularity  of  the  climate 
and  the  imcertainty  of  the  conditions  of  agriculture.  Besides, 
small -holdings  have  been  constantly  tried  in  England,  and 
the  universal  experience  has  been  that  with  normal  agri- 
cultural conditions  the  small-holder  cannot  survive  bad 
times.  The  only  exceptions  are  where  the  nature  of  the 
culture  is  such  as  to  require  a  great  deal  of  personal 
attention  and  the  minimum  use  of  machinery. 

There  is  a  great  deal  more  to  be  said  for  the  small - 
owner.  The  small -owner  has  this  great  advantage  over 
the  small -holder  that  he  is  not  burdened  by  a  rent  which 
must  necessarily  be  heavy.  His  gains  may  not  be  great,  but 
they  are  less  uncertain  than  those  of  the  tenant  farmer. 
Under  the  ordinary  system  of  English  agriculttu'e  the  pro- 
duce of  the  land  may  be  divided  into  three  funds.  First, 
the  land  has  to  pay  for  the  labour  expended  on  it.  Secondly, 
the  land  has  to  pay  rent.  Then  what  is  left  goes  to  the 
tenant  farmer.  As  the  first  two  funds  are  fixed,  all  variation 
in  the  production  of  the  farm  is  felt  by  the  third,  so  the 
gains  and  losses  of  the  tenant  farmer  are  great  in  proportion 
to  the  capital  involved.  Now  with  a  small -owner  all 
these  funds  are  united.  He  is  labourer,  landlord,  and  farmer 
in  one.  In  bad  years  as  farmer  he  may  make  nothing,  but 
he  still  receives  the  return  as  labourer  and  owner.  In  very 
bad  years  he  may  get  neither  farmer's  nor  landlord's  profit, 
but  the  land  will  probably  produce  enough  to  pay  his  wages, 
and,  although  poor,  he  will  not  be  ruined.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  good  years  he  will  get  not  only  labourer's  wagfes 
and  landlord's  profit,  but  he  will  also  get  such  a  large 
farmer's  profit  as  to  enable  him  to  save  money,  and  he  will 
probably  invest  the  saved  money  in  his  own  land.  A  French 
peasant  proprietor  explained  to  me  that  this  was  the  way 
the  system  worked  in  France  ;  it  is  fair  to  add  that  in  France 
the  peasant  proprietor  has  no  rates  to  pay.  Whether  the 
English  mind  could  resist  the  temptation  of  wasting  the 
money  in  the  good  years,  is  the  doubt  that  naturally  crosses 
the  mind  ;  but  one  must  always  remember  the  desire  to  spend 

.15 


226  SOCIAL    REFORM 

money  on  land  that  one  owns  is  very  great,  and  the  small- 
owner  might  be  able  to  resist  the  temptation  to  extravagance 
in  good  years  and  spend  the  money  he  saved  on  fruit -plant- 
ing, stock,  or  in  any  other  way  likely  to  ensure  a  good 
return.  The  difficulty  of  creating  a  class  of  peasant  pro- 
prietors is  that  of  inducing  working-men  to  save  enough 
money  to  buy  themselves  plots  of  land,  and  also  to  secure 
that  there  should  be  a  sufficient  number  of  such  plots  in 
the  market.  The  efforts  of  Mr.  Jesse  Collings  are  in  this 
direction  worthy  of  all  praise,  and  should  secure  support 
from  both  sides  of  the  House.  Such  a  scheme  might  espe- 
cially succeed  in  the  fruit  districts  of  England.  At  any 
rate,  why  should  not  a  system  which  is  working  successfully 
in  Ireland  and  producing  a  class  of  peasant  proprietors 
be  tried  also  in  England? 

IV.  Village  Industries. 

One  of  the  results  of  encouraging  the  sale  of  land  in  small 
plots  would  be  to  promote  village  industries.  Obviously 
no  one  would  invest  their  money  in  an  industry  unless  they 
had  some  security  that  they  would  not  be  turned  out.  There- 
fore a  population  pf  small  freeholders  tends  to  promote  such 
industries  ;  besides  which,  the  founding  of  industries  is  often 
the  result  of  an  almost  imperceptible  development.  Take 
the  example  of  a  man,  or  rather  his  wife,  who  succeeds  with 
two  or  three  hens  kept  in  the  back  garden.  Instead  of 
killing  her  chickens  one  year  she  determines  to  increase  her 
stock.  For  that  purpose  she  must  find  a  quarter  of  an  acre 
of  ground  to  let  in  a  suitable  situation.  When  she  has  hired 
the  land  she  finds  she  must  spend  ten  to  fifteen  pounds  to 
enable  her  to  take  full  advantage  of  it.  They  may  have 
saved  the  amount,  but  they  will  be  unwiUing  to  invest  it  till 
they  can  get  some  security  that  they  wiU  not  be  turned  out. 
And  here  it  is  that  the  Department  of  Agriculture  might 
help  ;  it  might  give  them  security  and  allow  them  some 
years  during  which  they  could  buy  that  land  by  easy  instal- 
ments. If  the  poultry  business  turned  out  a  success  they 
would  be  able  to  buy  the  land  ;  if  it  failed,  they  would  only 
lose  their  outlay  on  coops  and  runs.  But  a  man  must  have 
two  things  to  encourage  his  effort — first,  a  suitable  piece  of 
land  easy  to  get  and  from  which  he  is  in  no  danger  of  being 
turned  out  ;  secondly,  he  must  not  himself  be  liable  to  be 
moved — for  village  industries  are  often  in  origin  secondary 


THE    REHABILITATION    OF,    RURAL    LIFE     227^ 

employment,  so  that  the  growing  migratory  conditions  of  the 
rural  population  tend  to  prevent  such  developments. 
Industries  such  as  fruit-growing,  bee-keeping,  market - 
gardening,  rabbit -keeping,  all  require  a  stationary  popu- 
lation. More,  indeed,  might  be  done  than  is  done  at  present 
to  educate  people  as  to  the  advantages  of  these  industries, 
but  without  land  and  a  stationary  population  they  will  never 
succeed.  I  well  remember  an  old  woman  who  made  a 
hving  chiefly  off  some  black  currant  bushes.  These  bushes 
had  been  planted  and  cultivated  by  herself,  and  as  long  as 
she  lived  she  protected  her  crop  against  the  birds  ^nd 
gathered  it  and  sold  it  in  her  neighbouring  town.  Her 
cottage  was  not  let  with  the  farm,  and  she  had,  therefore, 
a  security  of  tenure,  and  with  her  cottage  went  a  quaxter 
of  an  acre  of  land.  But  one  must  add  that  a  lonely  cottage, 
even  if  it  has  a  large  bit  of  land  attached  to  it,  rarely 
attracts  tenants,  and  the  tendency  to  scatter  cottages  to 
oblige  the  farmers  is  one  of  the  many  reasons  why  country, 
life  is  disliked.  , 

V.  Disadvantages  of  Isolated  Cottages. 

To  the  town  dweller  those  lonely  cottages  standing'  far 
from  any  other  human  habitation  seem  ideal  abodes  for 
working  folk  ;  he  probably  sees  them  in  the  spring  and 
summer,  and  they  blend  in  with  the  verdant  landscape  and 
seem  part  of  a  life  of  poetry.  The  sweet  honeysuckle  clam- 
bering over  the  porch,  the  garden  gay  with  its  roses,  hide 
by  their  beauty  all  the  very  real  disadvantages — yes,  hard- 
ships— of  those  lonely  habitations.  Even  if  they  were  held 
independently  of  the  farmer — which  is  becoming  rarer  and 
rarer — they  would  be  disliked  by  working  folk,  for  isolation, 
unless  you  have  some  means  of  conveyance,  means  discom- 
fort and  even  hardships.  Visit  those  same  cottages  on  a 
wet,  winter  day,  when  the  flowers  are  all  gone  and  the  leaves 
fallen  from  the  trees  are  resolving  themselves  into  black 
and  greasy  mud,  then  those  houses  will  seem  httle  better 
than  purgatory.  The  children  are  coming  back  from  school, 
soaked  and  tired,  for  they  have  been  wet  pretty  well  the 
whole  day,  and  tea  is  not  ready  for  them  because  the  baker 
has  not  caUed  ;  it  is  perhaps  a  mile's  walk  to  his  shop,  and 
so,  as  the  mother  must  stop  at  home  to  mind  the  baby,  the 
poor  child  has  to  turn  back  in  the  early  winter  night  and 
struggle  again  through  the  mud  to  get  the  necessary  bread. 


228  SOCIAL    REFORM 

The  mother  dreads  the  result  of  the  kwigi  wetting,  for  she  has 
known  better  days  once  ;    perhaps  she  was  a  servant  in  a 
smart  house,  and  the  contrast  between  her  former  comfort 
and   her  present   want  embitters  her.      Now  she   can   only 
moan  about  the  bad  condition  of  their  boots  ;    those  boots 
were   new   a   short   time   ago,    but   the    daily   wear   to    and 
from  school  has   reduced  them  to  a  mere  fiction — ^in  fact 
they  are   only   now  worn   for   respectability's   sake,   as    the 
water  flows  in  and  out  with  the  greatest  ease  ;   and  how  can 
she  get  new  boots  on  the  miserable  pittance  her  husband 
earns?    Why,  she  will  explain  to  you  at  length,  she  finds  it 
difficult  to  keep  him  in  boots.     When  the  child  returns  with 
the  bread  it  is  no  wonder  that  she  looks  ill  ;    she  had  a  bad 
cold  this  morning,  but  she  would  go  to  school  because  she 
is  trying  to  get  the  silver  watch  the  County  Council  gives 
for  five  years'  constant  attendance.     She  can  scarcely  carry 
the  bread  in,  and  the  cold  has  obviously  taken  a  turn  for 
the  worse.      When  the  father  comes   home  from  work  the 
parents  agree  that  the  doctor  ought  to  see  the  child,  but 
how  impossible  it  is  to  get  hold  of  him.      Father  is  tired 
out  and  the  nearest  doctor  is  three  miles  away,  and  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  even  when  the  father  reaches  the  doctor  he 
will  refuse  to  come  out  on  such  a  night  and  only  send  a 
bottle  of  medicine  ;   and  so  they  agree  to  wait  till  the  morn- 
ing.    But  the  sickness  wiU  not  wait,  and  as  the  night  goes 
on  the  child  gets  worse  and  worse.     Ah,  my  town  dweller, 
especially  if  you  are  in  a  good  position,  how  little  do  you 
realize  these  moments  of  anguish.      You  have  only  got  to 
touch  your  telephone  and  the  doctor  is  at  your  door  ;    it  is 
not  so  in  the  country,  for  though  the  child  seems  dying,  the 
father    still    hesitates    about    starting    to    fetch    the    doctor. 
Some  doctors  will  not  come  unless  a  conveyance  is  provided 
for  them  ;    many  treat  the  disturber  of  their  slumbers  with 
scant  courtesy  and  little  sympathy.     But  at  last  the  father 
walks  the  three  miles,  and  comes  back  with  the  bottle  of 
medicine  and  a  promise  that  the  doctor  will  call  to-morrow. 
Yes,  they  won't  be  surprised  if  he  doesn't  call  for  two  or 
three  days  ;  and  one  can  scarcely  blame  him,  he  has  been-  up 
himself  a  night  or  two  ;   and  one  must  admit  that  the  calls  of 
the  poor  are  not  infrequently  very  unnecessary.     Oh,  many, 
is  the  tragedy  which  one  could  tell  of  the  isolated  cottage, 
which  have  as  their  result  a   constant  tendency  to   induce 
migration  to  the  towns,  especially  among  the  young.     Some- 
times, indeed,  one  is  astonished  that  the  older  people  do  not 


THE    REHABILITATION    OF    RURAL    LIFE     229 

move  into  the  village  when  one  realizes  the  inconvenience 
of  isolation  ;  but,  however  lonely  the  house,  the  labourer 
cannot  give  notice — he  is  bound  to  the  house,  for  if  he 
changes  his  house  he  changes  his  work. 

VI.  Tied  Houses. 

The  lonely  cottage  has  always  been  a  difficulty  for  the 
country  folk,  but  of  late  years  a  serious  grievance  has  been 
created  by  the  introduction  of  a  new  system  of  tenure, 
developed,  I  believe,  from  the  system  in  Scotland.  There 
the  **  hinds  "  are  hired  for  a  year  and  a  cottage  provided 
for  them.  This  system  may  have  its  advantages,  for  a  man 
knows  exactly  where  he  is  ;  he  is  there  for  a  year.  But  the 
new  English  system  works  out  most  unfairly,  for  a  man  is 
hired  by  the  week  and  is  liable  to  be  ejected  from  his  house 
at  a  month's  notice.  Clearly  a  working-man  cannot  afford 
to  move  often,  therefore  once  he  is  in  his  cottage  he  must 
remain  there  whatever  the  conditions  of  his  employment. 
His  master  may  be  just  and  generous,  but  he  may  be  the 
reverse,  and  even  if  he  be  an  ideal  master  it  would  be  hardly 
safe  for  the  working-man  to  spend  much  money  on  ihis 
garden  ;  and  so  the  modern  cottage  tends  to  be  destitute  of 
fruit-trees,  an  industry  which  might  well  be  developed  all 
through  the  country  if  only  the  cottager  had  security  of 
tenure.  In  the  old  houses  which  do  not  go  with  the  farm 
there  stand  one  or  two  queer -shaped  apple-trees,  planted 
perhaps  generations  ago,  defended  every  year  against  the 
depredations  of  the  boys  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  needing 
all  the  vituperation  that  the  mother  of  the  house  can  put 
into  her  shrill  voice  to  save  it  from  being  looted  by  the 
urchin.  It  was  possible  to  plant  that  old  apple-tree  because 
the  house  never  went  with  any  farm  and  was  let  to  the  same 
family,  father  and  son,  for  fifty,  perhaps  a  hundred  years  ; 
now  the  new  cottages  will  never  have  an  old  apple-tree  in 
their  garden,  for  who  cares  to  plant  a  tree  when  in  another 
month  they  might  be  turned  out.  Besides,  the  insecurity  of 
tenure  naturally  makes  people  migratory.  Many,  realizing 
their  insecurity,  prefer  to  leave  at  a  moment  advantageous 
to  themselves  rather  than  be  turned  out  when  it  would 
involve  family  disaster.  The  family  is  growing"  up  ;  the 
sons,  and  especially  the  daughters,  must  soon  be  started  in 
life.  There  are  always  few  opportunities  in  the  countryside  ; 
what  few  there  are  are  not  attractive  ^.nough  to  those  who 


'230  SOCIAL    REFORM 

may  at  any  moment  be  turned  out  of  their  houses.  The 
daughter  might  be  a  pupil -teacher  at  the  village  school — a 
post  of  some  dignity  and  importance  in  village  life — but  if 
the  farmer  turns  the  family  out,  what  will  happen?  The 
son  may  succeed  the  father,  and  if  the  father  was  certain  of 
stopping  mother  would  persuade  him  to  do  so,  in  spite  of 
the  bad  pay  and  the  quiet  life  ;  but  if  the  father's  tenure  is 
uncertain,  the  son  had  better  begin  life  in  the  town.  So  the 
family  had  better  move  now  at  once  to  the  factory  town, 
to  one  of  those  grimy,  monotonous  houses  in  a  street  of 
dreary  aspect,  with  a  grand -sounding  name.  It  is  true  that 
neither  mother  nor  father  will  be  as  happy  there  as  they 
would  in  the  open  country,  but  no  one  will  turn  them  out  of 
their  house  as  long  as  they  pay  their  rent,  and  their  children 
will  not  have  to  be  separated  from  them,  and  the  doctor  will 
be  close  at  hand,  and  there  will  be  a  wealth  of  butchers  and 
grocers  to  choose  from  ;  and,  besides,  the  children  will  like 
all  the  joys  of  the  cinema,  the  street  talk,  yes,  and  the  girls 
will  like  that  which  father  does  not  like — the  sixpenny 
dances. 

VII.  Joys  of  the  Old  Village  Life. 

Years  ago  the  village  held  its  own  against  the  charms  of 
town  life.  The  men  and  women  bred  in  the  village  found 
their  living  there,  and  only  went  to  town  occasionally  ;  they 
were  frightened  by  its  noise  and  shocked  by  its  wickedness. 
The  village  might  be  dull  sometimes  in  the  winter,  but  it 
was  a  sort  of  family  establishment — everybody  was  related 
to  one  another  and  loved  the  place,  except,  perhaps,  the 
new-comer,  and  as  he  came  in  only  fifteen  years  ago  he 
could  scarcely  in  such  a  short  time  have  learned  to  appre- 
ciate all  the  advantages  of  the  village.  The  doctor  lived 
at  one  end  of  the  village,  so  that  if  he  was  wanted  to  give  a 
bottle  of  medicine  which  cured  equally  aU  the  ills  to  which 
man  is  heir,  or  to  pronounce  the  death  sentence  on  the  sick 
— which  seems  for  some  reason  to  please  the  countryman's 
heart — or  to  give  advice  in  a  hundred  small  matters  on  which 
his  wise  counsel  was  sought,  he  was  always  at  hand.  Besides 
the  doctor  there  would  be  all  the  other  characters  of  the 
village.  The  clergyman  lived  near  the  church,  neither  beloved 
as  the  good  story-book  tells  you,  nor  hated  as  the  radical 
pamphlet  avers,  but  just  part  of  the  village  and  treated  as 
such.  So  the  family  would  go  to  church  half  an  hour  before 
the  service — people  in  the  country  villages  do  not  cut  thing's 


THE    REHABILITATION    OF    RURAL    LIEE      231 

fine — and  after  church  they  would  exchange  greetings  and 
discuss  the  weather  and  the  crops.  Again,  on  the  weekday 
the  school  would  be  near  at  hand  so  that  the  children  could 
get  back  for  their  dinners,  and  there  would  be  no  wading 
back  amidst  mud  on  a  winter's  evening.  The  old  village, 
in  fact,  had  many  charms,  but  the  farmers  did  not  like  it. 
They  would  explain  to  you  that  it  made  the  men  independent, 
so  that  if  the  price  of  labour  was  rising  the  men  would 
demand  their  share.  A  man  could  give  a  week's  notice  if 
he  thought  he  was  badly  treated  ;  if  he  had  been  a  good, 
steady  man  it  mattered  little  when  he  left  his  employment, 
for  one  of  the  other  farmers  would  gladly  take  him  on,  or 
he  would  find  work  at  the  brickfield,  or  at  the  squire's  house  ; 
so  if  the  farmer  were  overbearing  he  could  speak  to  him  as 
one  man  to  another — his  family  were  not  hostages  to  the 
farmer  as  they  are  in  those  tied  houses. 


Vlir.  The  Ideal  Village. 

I  should  like  to  see  some  village  built  on  the  old  lines, 
with  its  church  and  its  school  in  the  centre  and  a  great  open 
space  where  all  can  meet  and  gossip  in  the  summer  evenings, 
and  where  the  children  could  play.  The  village  should 
stand  off  the  main  road,  not  where  the  motors  come  rushing 
through  so  that  children  are  in  danger.  There  might  be 
a  maypole,  and  a  flag  hauled  up  on  days  of  festival.  These 
things  all  make  life  sweeter.  Round  the  green  should 
cluster  cottages  :  do  not  let  us  have  them  too  monotonously 
built,  and  we  need  not  have  the  initials  of  the  owner  built 
into  them,  but  let  each  house  have  its  individuality.  Could 
it  not  also  be  arranged  through  some  building  society  that 
some  of  these  houses  should  be  owned  by  the  men  who  live 
in  them?  Behind  the  row  of  cottages,  roughly  and  irregu- 
larly arranged,  should  be  the  yeomen's  freehold  plots  of 
land.  Trees  should  be  planted  round  the  village,  to  shelter 
it  from  the  wind  and  make  its  lanes  look  pretty  when  the 
spring  sun  comes  through  the  early  opening  leaves  ;^nd 
young  men  and  maidens  wander  down  those  lanes  hand  in 
hand,  or  sit  in  silent  and  mutual  adoration  for  hours 
together.  The  farmers  will  like  the  scheme  in  the  end  : 
it  is  true  they  will  dislike  it  at  first  ;  they  will  find  men  wiU 
be  much  more  independent  and  self-respecting,  but  they 
will  ^et  a  better  class  of  labourer.     The  chief  advanta§*e 


'232  SOCIAL    REFORM 

will  be  that  England  will  be  provided  with'  a  virile  and 
happy  rural  population,  able  to  enjoy  its  happiness  in  peace 
time  and  to  defend  it  in  the  terrible  hour  of  war. 

It  is  little  use  to  organize  navies  and  armies  if  you  have 
not  men  bold  and  skilful  enough  to  fiU  them. 

It  is  the  personal  factor  that  tells  in  the  end.  Help  the 
countryman  to  raise  a  large  and  healthy  family,  and  England 
will  be  safe.  Allow  the  riu"al  population  to  be  diminished, 
and  we  shall  soon  be  at  the  mercy  of  our  bitterest  foes. 

N.B. — ^This  article  was  written  before  I  came  into  the 
west  country  ;  stiU  I  have  seen  nothing  here  to  induce 
me  to  modify  my  views.  Perhaps,  indeed,  they  have  been 
strengthened  as  regards  the  importance  of  agricultural 
education.  ,  .  i       , 


CHAPTER    XIV 

Housing  after  the  War 

By  henry  R.  ALDRIDGE, 

Secretary  of  the  National  Housing  and  Town  Planning  Council 

Before  stating  in  close  detail  the  main  features  of  the 
housing  problem  which  will  present  itself  for  solution  at 
the  close  of  the  war,  it  will  be  of  service  to  give  a  short 
summary  of  the  housing  problem  as  it  presented  itself  to 
reformers  at  the  opening  of  the  war. 

As  a  (heritage  from  the  past  we  were  then  burdened  with 
many  *'  survivals  of  the  unfit  "  in  the  shape  of  large 
numbers  of  insanitary  houses  unfit  for  human  habitation, 
and  in  these  houses  from  5  to  lo  per  cent,  of  our  poorer 
working-class  population  were  housed. 

Overlapping  with  this  problem  of  unfit  housing  accom- 
modation we  had,  according  to  the  1 9 1 1  Census,  i  o  per 
cent,  of  our  urban  population  (nearly  three  million  persons) 
living  under  conditions  of  overcrowding — i.e.  with  an 
average  of  more  than  two  persons  to  each  room.  In  two 
counties  of  England,  viz.  Durham  and  Northumberland, 
the  proportion  of  overcrowded  persons  to  the  total  popula- 
tion reached  nearly  30  per  cent. 

Added  to  these  problems  of  insanitary  houses  and  over- 
crowding we  had  a  growing  shortage  of  small  houses — ^a 
shortage  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  five  years  preceding 
the  war  the  supply  was  far  short  of  the  normal  demand. 

There  has  been  much  controversy  as  to  the  causes  of  this 
diminution  in  the  supply  of  small  houses,  but  it  is  clear  that 
the  constructive  action  of  builders  and  investors  has  been 
adversely  affected  by  the  provisions  of  the  Finance  (1909- 
10)    Act,    19 ID.     A  leading  authority  amongst  the  estate 

agents  of  the  kingdom,  Mr.  A.  W.  Shelton,  F.A.I.,  has  col' 

233 


234  SOCIAL    REFORM 

lected  the  figures  of  cottage  building  in  seventy  towns  (with 
an  aggregate  population  of  13,000,000)  for  two  periods, 
1906-10  and  191 1 -I  5.  These  figures  show  that  in  the  five 
years  preceding  the  passing  of  the  Finance  Act  169,896 
small  houses  were  built,  and  in  the  five  following  years 
89,654 — a  falling  ofi"  of  80,242.  The  value  of  the  figures 
is  lessened  by  the  fact  that  the  last  period  of  five  years 
includes  a  full  war  year,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
builders  have  cause  for  complaint.  This  is  placed  beyond 
question  by  the  fact  that  the  Government  in  191 3,  and 
again  in  19 14,  admitted  the  existence  of  a  grievance.  In 
March  19 14  the  Parliamentary  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
pledged  the  Government  to  introduce  legislation  in  relief 
of  builders,  and  but  for  the  outbreak  of  war  this  legislation 
would  without  doubt  have  been  passed. 

This  admitted  decline  in  building  activity  greatly  in- 
creased the  difficulties  of  the  general  shortage  of  small  houses 
which  had  been  felt  for  a  long  period  in  certain  areas — more 
especially  in  mining  districts  and  in  rural  villages — and 
it  will  not  be  an  overstatement  of  the  housing  shortage 
problem,  as  it  presented  itself  in  July  19 14,  to  state  that 
400,000  new  houses  were  needed  and  that  the  provision 
of  these  would  have  left  unremedied,  for  the  greater 
part,  the  insanitary  houses  and  overcrowding  referred  to 
above . 

The  Housing  Problem  during  the  War. 

In  the  first  month  of  the  war  the  housing  problem  occu- 
pied the  attention  of  Parliament,  and  a  wise  step  was 
taken  by  the  Government  in  making  provision  for  the 
lending  of  £4,000,000  on  special  terms  to  local  authorities 
and  public  utility  societies  to  be  expended  in  housing 
schemes.  One  of  the  main  factors  in  the  decision  of 
Parliament  to  pass  the  Act  embodying  this  provision  (the 
Housing,  No.  2,  Act,  1914)  was  the  fear  that  there 
might  be  a  great  amount  of  unemployment  in  the  building 
trade.  ,  '  i  '     j 

But  as  time  passed  the  fear  of  unemployment  was  dis- 
pelled and  the  application  of  locall  authorities  and  public 
utility  societies  for  loans  under  this  Act  were  not 
granted.  :  '     '     [1     '  |  :^i  |!i" 

In  the  first  two  years  of  the  war  the  shortage  of  houses 
has   been    further    increased    by    the   cessation   of    cottagtQ 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE    WAR  235 

building  activity  in  most  centres — a  cessation  due  in  part 
to  the  unwillingness  of  those  controlling  capital  to  lend 
it  for  cottage  building,  but  more  especially  due  to  the 
high  cost  of  building  materials  and  the  lack  of  labour. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact  that  although  millions 
of  men  are  now  serving  with  the  colours  the  shortage  of 
cottage  accommodation  is  nevertheless  acute.  In  the  early 
months  of  the  war  period  it  was  quite  commonly  sug- 
gested that  with  the  calling  up  of  great  numbers  of  men 
to  serve,  the  pressure  of  demand  for  cottage  houses  would 
diminish  and  a  great  number  of  houses  would  be  left 
untenanted.  Those  who  made  this  forecast  failed  to  take 
into  account  the  determination  of  soldiers'  wives  to  keep 
their  homes  intact  and  ready  for  their  husbands'  return  at 
the  close  of  the  war.  Many  wives  were  urged  by  well- 
meaning  philanthropic  advisers  to  give  up  their  homes  and 
crowd  in  with  their  parents,  but  the  great  majority  of 
them  had  the  good  sense  to  maintain  their  homes  and  to 
regard  the  payment  of  the  rent  as  the  first  charge  on  a 
separation  allowance,  which,  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  European  wars,  has  been  sufficient  to  enable 
our  soldiers'  wives  to  maintain  their  homes  without  charit- 
able aid.  I       I  ! 

But  whatever  may  be  the  reasons  for  the  continued 
pressure  of  demand  for  the  tenancy  of  cottage  houses, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  except  in  certain  areas,  it  is 
as  great  now  as  it  was  in  the  year  preceding  the  war. 
In  many  of  the  great  cities  of  the  kingdom  this  shortage 
has,  moreover,  assumed  the  character  of  a  house  famine. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  great  munition  areas. 

The  usual  consequence  of  a  house  famine — a  steady  rise 
in  rents — began  to  appear  in  the  summer  of  191 5,  and 
in  October  of  191 5  it  became  apparent  that  unless  strong 
action  was  taken  by  the  Government  grave  disputes  between 
landlords  and  tenants  would  be  engendered — with  embittered 
rent  strikes  as  a  result.  In  fairness  to  houseowners  it 
should  be  made  clear  that  the  majority  of  them  were 
willing  to  place  aside  the  opportunity,  given  by  the 
shortage,  to  charge  higher  rents.  Another  factor,  how- 
ever, came  into  play — viz,  the  general  rise  in  the  rate  of 
interest  and  the  consequent  endeavour  of  those  who 
had  lent  money  on  mortgage  on  cottage  property  to 
secure  the  payment  of  higher  rates  of  interest  on  these 
mortgages. 


236  SOCIAL    REFORM 

Two  factors  contributing  towards  a  demand  for  the 
payment  of  higher  rents   were   thus  operative — viz.  : 

{a)  The  desire  of  those  who  had  lent  money  on 
mortgage  for  the  purchase  or  erection  of  small  houses 
to  secure  the  same  rate  of  interest  as  that  which  they 
could  secure  by  investing  money  in  War  Loan  Stock, 
and,  consequently,  the  natural  attempt  of  property 
owners  to  transfer  this   burden  to  their  tenants. 

{b)   The  desire  of  those  letting  house  property  to 

secure  the  higher  rents  which  the  shortage  of  houses 

enabled  them  to  demand. 

Of  these  two  forces  the  first  was  by  far  the  more  serious. 

Within  a  short  time  of  the  issue  of  the  War  Loan  at  5  per 

cent .  many  of  those  controlling  mortgage  investments  issued 

notices,  intimating  to  those  to  whom  money  had  been  lent 

on  the  security  of  cottage  property  that  in  future  an  increase 

of  ^  per  cent,  or    i   per  cent,   interest  must  be  paid. 

As  the  addition  of  i  per  cent,  to  the  interest  charge 
in  the  case  of  a  loan  pf  £200  on  the  security  of  a  small 
house  involved  an  additional  payment  of  £2  per  year  (or 
about  9d.  per  week  on  the  rent  of  the  cottage),  the  nominal 
owner  of  the  mortgaged  house  had,  in  the  great  majority 
of  cases,  no  choice — except  the  loss  of  livelihood — but  to 
transfer  the  added  interest  charge  in  the  form  of  weekly 
rent.  As  a  result  notices  demanding  an  increase  in  rent 
were  served  throughout  the  whole  country,  and  many  bitter 
controversies  arose. 

It  then  became  clear  that  legislative  action  must  be  taken, 
and,  acting  on  the  advice  of  housing  reformers,  the  Govern- 
ment introduced  into  Parliament  and  placed  on  the  Statute 
Book  an  Act  providing  that  for  the  period  of  the  war  and 
for  six  months  after  the  close  of  the  war  : 
{a)   Rents  should  not  be  raised  ; 
{b)  The  rates  of  interest  on  mortgages  should  not 
be  raised  ;    and 

(c)   The   foreclosure   of   mortgages    should   be  for- 
bidden,  except   under   special    circumstances. 
(These  provisions    apply   only   to    houses   let   at    less    than 
certain  rentals  stated  in  the  Act.) 

In  regard  to  this  Act  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact 
that  its  provisions  have  been  accepted  loyally,  and  that  as 
a  result  of  its  operations  peace  from  rent  disputes  has  been 
secured  throughout  the  land. 

Another   aspect   pf   the    housing    question   occupied   the 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE   WAR  237 

attention  of  Parliament  in  the  early  part  of  19 16,  when  the 
announcement  that  married  men,  attested  under  the  Derby 
scheme,  would  be  called  up,  rendered  necessary  the  giving 
of  attention  to  the  grave  problem  which  confronted  married 
men  in  regard  to  the  maintenance  of  their  homes. 

There  was  not  a  little  danger  that  the  moratorium 
method  (adopted  in  France  and  other  countries)  would  be 
adopted  here  also,  but  as  the  result  of  a  strong  appeal  to 
members  of  the  Government,  and  to  members  of  both 
Houses  of  Parliament,  the  proposal  to  pass  a  Moratorium 
Act  was  rejected  and  a  promise  naade  by  the  Government 
that  action  should  be  taken  on  well-considered  lines  to 
maintain  free  from  debt  the  homes  of  married  men  called 
up  to  serve.  Finally,  it  was  decided  to  appoint  a  number 
of  Commissioners  acting  for  the  Military  Service  (Civil 
Liabilities)  Committee — these  Commissioners  to  receive 
applications  and  make  recommendations  as  to  special  grants. 
Grants  up  to  a  total  of  £104  per  year  may  be  made  by 
the  Committee  in  regard  to  obligations  in  respect  of  rent  ; 
interest  and  instalments  payable  in  respect  of  loans,  in- 
cluding mortgages  ;  instalments  payable  imder  agreements 
for  the  purchase  of  business  premises,  a  dwelling-house, 
furniture,  and  the  like  ;  rates  and  taxes,  insurance 
premiums  ;  and  school  fees.  Up  to  December  31,  19 16, 
the  local  Commissioners  had  received  155,882  applications, 
and  they  had  made  recommendations  in  130,000  cases  The 
Committee  had  at  the  same  date  decided  119,500  applica- 
tions, and  had  awarded  grants  in  86,000  cases,  representing 
an  annual  payment  of  £1,654,000. 

The  Housing  Question  in  the  Period  immediately 

FOLLOWING  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WaR. 

That  the  need  for  constructive  housing  action  will  be 
greater  at  the  close  of  the  war  than  at  the  commencement 
of  the  war  is  beyond  question.  But  quite  apart  from  this 
persistence  of  the  pre-war  need  for  housing  activity,  those 
responsible  for  the  guidance  of  the  housing  reform  move- 
ment have  been  compelled  to  give  their  earnest  thought 
and  care  to  a  constructive  problem  of  great  magnitude 
and  first-class  national  importance — viz.  the  preparation  for 
the  home-coming  of  the  quarter  of  a  million  men  in  the 
building  trade  who  have  responded  to  the  call  of  their 
country  and  are  now  serving  in  the  Army  and  Navy. 


238  SOCIAL    REFORM 

The  gravity  of  the  problem  will  be  realized  from  the 
following  facts  and  figures  : 

The  building  industry  is  the  third  greatest  industry  in 
the  kingdom,  and  no  less  than  905,202  workmen  are 
employed  in  it.  Since  the  war  started  quite  270,000  of 
these  have  joined  the  Army.  Probably  about  50,000  more 
have  temporarily  changed  their  occupation  and  are  work- 
ing in  the  production  of  munitions.  Of  the  600,000 
building -trade  workmen  remaining  at  home  the  greater 
part  are  engaged  in  war -building  work — the  construction 
of  factories,  aerodromes,  etc. — ^and  day  by  day  the  pro- 
portion of  the  men  thus  employed  rises. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  with  the  coming  of  peace  a 
colossal  crisis  of  unemployment  may  arise  in  the  building 
trade  unless  wise  measures  are  taken  to  avert  it.  The 
general  features  of  this  problem  have  been  so  admirably 
stated  by  Mr.  B.  Seebohm  Rowntree  that,  with  his  kind 
permission,  the  following  paragraph  may  be  quoted  from 
an  article  appearing  in  the  Contemporary  Review  for 
October    191 5  : 

Directly  peace  is  signed,  demobilization  of  the  greater  part  of  our  Army  will 
begin,  and  the  bulk  of  its  members  will  be  thrown  upon  the  labour  market. 
Theoretically,  demobilization  should  only  take  place  gradually,  as  the  labour 
market  is  able  to  absorb  the  men  demobilized,  but  fact  in  this  case  can  hardly  be 
expected  to  conform  to  theory.  A  great  proportion  of  the  men  definitely  joined 
the  Army  for  the  duration  of  the  war  only,  and  were  promised  reinstatement  in 
their  old  jobs  at  its  close.  We  do  not  know  exactly  what  the  proportion  of  these 
men  is,  but  it  must  be  very  large,  and  it  is  highly  improbable  that  they  will 
agree  to  stay  with  the  colours  for  months  after  hostilities  cease.  The  great 
majority  of  them  will  return  straightway  to  their  previous  employment,  throwing 
out  of  work  those  who  have  occupied  their  places  during  their  absence.  No 
doubt  there  will  be  exceptions  :  some  will  remain  with  the  colours :  some  will 
emigrate  :  a  few  will  seek  fresh  occupations,  less  monotonous  or  more  lucrative  ; 
but  their  proportion  is  not  likely  to  be  relatively  very  great.  Even  men  whose 
situations  have  not  been  kept  open  for  them  will  probably,  as  a  rule,  be  disin- 
clined to  remain  in  the  Army  after  peace  is  signed.  In  this  connection  it  may  be 
noted  that  after  the  Civil  War  in  America  the  authorities  sought  to  avoid  rapid 
demobilization,  but  the  men  insisted  upon  it.  They  preferred  to  take  their 
chance  of  finding  work,  and  a  similar  experience  will  most  likely  be  ours.  Thus, 
making  full  allowance  for  all  possible  exceptions,  and  likewise  for  those — 
university  students,  for  instance — whose  return  will  not  affect  labour,  I  believe 
we  shall  be  well  within  the  mark  in  assuming  that  considerably  over  a  million 
men  will  be  thrown  on  the  labour  market  within  three  months  of  the  termination 
of  the  war,  and  that  work  will  have  to  be  found  either  for  them  or  for  the 
individuals  whom  they  will  displace.  Moreover,  the  labour  market  at  the  time 
will  be  singularly  unqualified  to  absorb  this  additional  labour.  Vast  numbers  of 
workers  to-day  are  engaged  in  manufacturing  goods,  the  demand  for  which  has 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE    WAR  '239 

been  created  directly  or  indirectly  by  the  war.  When  peace  is  signed  the  great 
bulk  of  this  demand  will  cease,  and  consequently  there  will  be  very  serious 
dislocation  of  industry  apart  from  that  caused  by  the  demobilization  of  the 
Army. 

This  dislocation  is  likely  to  be  more  considerable  than  in  August  1914,  for 
although  at  that  time  much  unemployment  was  certainly  caused  by  panic  and 
the  sudden  stoppage  of  our  export  trade,  men  were  enlisting,  and  so  being  taken 
off  the  labour  market,  at  a  very  rapid  rate,  and  enormous  demands  were  instantly 
forthcoming  for  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  war  materials.  No  doubt  the 
return  of  peace  will  create  a  spirit  of  confidence  among  manufacturers,  who  will 
begin  at  once  to  prepare  for  active  trade.  Moreover,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
our  soldiers  will  not  return  with  entirely  empty  pockets.  Still,  I  doubt  whether 
those  factors,  during  the  first  few  months,  will  operate  so  powerfully  in  the 
reduction  of  unemployment  as  did  the  enlistment  and  demand  for  war  materials 
of  last  August  (1914). 


The  same  problem  has  been  stated  in  general  terms  and 
as  affecting  the  industries  of  the  country  by  the  Chairman 
of  the  Birmingham  Trades  Union  Congress  (19 16),  Mr. 
H.   Gosling,   L.C.C.,  in  his   opening  address  : 


When  the  Government  on  the  resumption  of  peace  suddenly  lessens  its 
gigantic  pay-roll,  the  biggest  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  stops  its  colossal 
orders  for  every  conceivable  commodity — when  millions  of  soldiers  are  dis- 
banded at  approximately  the  same  time  that  two  or  three  million  munition 
workers  are  discharged — when  something  like  a  third  of  the  whole  wage- 
earning  population  of  this  country  will  be  simultaneously  losing  their  jobs — 
there  is  bound  to  be  almost  a  flood  of  men  and  women  seeking  new  situations. 
.  .  .  This  will  be  a  moment  of  the  gravest  industrial  peril.  .  .  .  The  nation 
has  a  right  to  ask  that  the  Government,  which  knows  that  peace  will  come  one 
day,  and  which  must  realize  that  it  will  ibe  the  Government  itself  that  will 
deliberately  give  the  signal  for  the  dismissal  of  six  or  seven  million  men  and 
women  from  their  present  employment,  should  take  all  the  necessary  steps  in 
advance  by  properly  organizing  the  extensive  public  works  of  all  kinds  that 
must  necessarily  be  undertaken  to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  any  widespread  or 
lasting  unemployment. 


Now  it  is  clear  that  in  some  "  key  "  industries— mining, 
shipbuilding,  and,  in  a  measure,  engineering— all  the  skilled 
men  available  can  be  usefully  absorbed  as  and  when  they 
return  from  the  Army.  But  it  will  be  unwise  to  deduce 
from  forecasts  of  the  probable  condition  of  employment 
in  special  "  key  "  industries  any  forecast  as  to  general 
industrial  activity  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Each  industry 
should  be  made  the  subject  of  separate  and  careful 
investigation,  and  when  this  wise  course  is  followed  it 
becomes  evident  that  in  the  building  industry  great  diffi- 


240  SOCIAL    REFORM 

culties  will  present  themselves  in  the  year  following  the 
close  of  the  war  and  that  three  factors  wiU  operate  to 
produce  unemployment  : 

{a)  There  will  be  difficulty  in  securing  capital 
to  finance  building  operations.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  demand  for  capital  for  short  invest- 
ment loans  will  be  very  great  and  that  the  supply 
of  capital  for  long-period  investments  (such  as 
building  operations)    will  be  directly  affected. 

{b)  The  rate  of  interest  will  be  high.  It  is  clear 
that  5  per  cent,  will  be  the  minimum  rate  at  which 
capital  will  be  available  in  the  open  market  for 
Government  loans,  and  this  will  certainly  be  the 
minimum  rate  for  all  private  operations. 

{c)  The  prices  of  building  materials  will  continue 
to  be  high .    At  the  present  time  the  average  cost  of  the 
materials  for  building  a  small  house  is  between  30  and 
50  per  cent,  greater  than  in  the  months  immediately 
preceding  the  war .    With  the  return  of  skilled  workmen 
the  cost  of  production  of  home-made  materials — e.g. 
bricks — will   diminish   and    prices    will    fall,   but    it    is 
certain  that  for  many   months   following  the  war  the 
price     of    timber     wiU     continue    to    be    abnormally 
high. 
All  these   factors   will   operate   in  the   direction   of   dis- 
couraging   activity    in    the    building    trade    in    the    period 
following  the  declaration  of  peace.     The  tendency  will  be 
to    delay    or   postpone    the    construction   of   new    buildings 
(as  distinct  from  the  completion  of  buildings  already  com- 
menced) until  the  time  when  capital  will  be  obtainable  at 
lower  rates  and  when  the  prices  of  building  materials  have 
been  reduced. 

It  will  clearly  be  an  impossible  task  to  persuade  those 
private  persons  who  have  the  power  to  finance  private 
building  contracts  that  in  the  face  of  discouraging  factors 
they  should  decide  to  act.  Their  capital  will  flow  into 
more  encouraging  fields  of  action,  and  there  is  only  too 
much  reason  to  fear  that  the  close  of  the  war  will  mark 
the  commencement  of  a  great  crisis  of  unemployment  in 
the  building  industry — that  is  to  say,  a  crisis  in  an  industry 
which  has,  in  the  past,  as  a  result  of  such  crises  of  un- 
employment, suffered  more  demoralization  than  any  other 
great  national  industry. 

But  it  will  be  urged  that  the  period  following  the  close 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE    WAR  241 

of  the  war  will  be  the  time  when  the  unemployed  insurance 
legislation  as  applied  to  the  building  trade  will  prove  to 
be  of  special  service.  A  little  reflection  will,  however, 
show  that  there  are  two  grave  reasons  why  another  solu- 
tion should  be  found.  The  first  of  the  reasons  is  that 
public  opinion  will  not  permit  the  adoption  of  a  method 
which  will  mean  the  flooding  of  our  towns  with  unemployed 
workmen  returning  from  the  danger  of  the  battle -line  and 
receiving  sums  in  unemployment  benefit  which,  even  when 
supplemented  by  Trade  Union  savings,  will  be  admittedly 
inadequate  to  maintain  a  proper  standard  of  comfort  in 
their  homes. 

The  second  reason  is  that  the  usage  of  unemployment 
insurance  funds  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  unemploy- 
ment in  the  building  trade  due  to  the  war  cannot  be 
justified,  except  on  the  ground  that  other  forms  of  remedial 
action  are  impossible.  These  funds  have  been  accumu- 
lated for  the  purpose  of  mitigating  ordinary. trade  unemploy- 
ment, and  they  should  be  strictly  conserved  for  the  purposes 
for  which  they  have  been  created. 

It  may,  however,  be  suggested  that  the  difficulties  can 
be  surmounted  by  the  adoption  of  the  policy  of  slow 
demobilization.  This  proposal  is  much  favoured  by  those 
who  only  "think  one  thought  deep."  But  quite  apart 
from  the  inevitable  discontent  of  men  who  will  desire  to 
return  to  their  homes  and  daily  occupations  as  early  as 
possible,  a  policy  of  slow  demobilization  of  men  in  the 
building  trade,  adopted  not  for  military  reasons,  but  to 
guard  against  unemployment,  will  be  prodigally  wasteful 
and  unwise  in  the  interests  of  national  economy.  Every 
man  kept  with  the  colours  in  accordance  with  a  policy 
of  slow  demobilization  will  cost  the  nation  at  least  £3 
per  week  for  Army  pay,  maintenance,  and  separation 
allowance . 

It  is  true  that  we  may  be  compelled,  through  lack  )of 
sufficient  care  in  devising  other  more  useful  and  less  costly 
means  of  dealing  with  unemployment,  to  adopt  this  policy, 
in  regard  to  many  industries,  but  in  the  building  industry 
a  better  way  has  been  clearly  outlined  and  a  definite  policy 
has  been  placed  before  the  Government  for  consideration. 
This  policy  may  be  described  as  that  of  preparing  plans 
and  outlining  schemes  to  secure — mainly  through  the  agency 
of  the  local  authorities  of  the  kingdom — that  work  of  real 
service  to  the  community  shall  be  provided  for  the  men  in 

16 


242  SOCIAL    REFORM 

the  building  trade,  as  and  when  the  need  arises  at  the  close 
of  the  war. 

There  is  good  reason  to  hope  that  the  Government  will 
adopt  this  line  of  policy  and  will  encourage  local  authori- 
ties to  concentrate  their  attention  during  the  period  which 
will  elapse  before  the  close  of  the  war  on  the  task  of 
preparing  and  holding  ready  plans  and  schemes  for 
building,  such  schemes  to  be  carried  into  effect  "  as  and 
when  the  need  arises." 

Principal  amongst  the  items  of  building  work  of  real 
service  to  the  coimtry  may  be  placed  that  of  providing 
houses  to  meet  the  admittedly  great  housing  shortage,  and 
for  this  reason  the  policy  outlined  above  commends  itself 
to  housing  reformers.  It  received  warm  support  at  a 
National  Congress  on  "  Home  Problems  after  the  War," 
held  in  April  last  in  London,  and  attended  by  four  hundred 
representatives,  who  between  them  represented  practically 
the  whole  of  those  interested  in  the  building  industry,  as 
well  as  local  authorities  and  great  workmen's  associations 
in  the  kingdom. 

The  Congress  unanimously  passed  the  following 
resolution  : 

That  this  Congress  urgently  directs  the  attention  of  the  Government  to  the 
critical  need  for  the  provision  of  additional  housing  for  the  working  classes, 
and  in  respect  of  the  national  interest  and  responsibility  in  the  matter  urges 
upon  the  Government  to  set  aside  no  less  than  ^^20,000,000  to  make  such 
advances  to  Local  Authorities  and  other  agencies  as  will  enable  them  to  provide 
houses  at  reasonable  rentals  having  regard  to  all  necessary  and  equitable 
circumstances  and  conditions. 

This  resolution  was  submitted  to  the  Government  by 
means  of  a  deputation  received  by  Mr.  Walter  Long,  as 
President  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  on  September  20, 
19 1 6.  In  his  reply  Mr.  Long  stated  that  he  had  already 
submitted  to  his  colleagues  in  the  Government  "  a  com- 
prehensive and  practical  scheme,"  and  that,  together  with 
the  Secretary  of  State  for  Scotland  (who  presides  over 
the  Local  Government  Board  for  Scotland),  "  he  would 
lose  neither  time  nor  opportunity  in  pressing  upon  his 
colleagues  in  the  Government  the  acceptance  of  the  pro- 
posals they  had  made  or  were  prepared  to  make."  In 
regard  to  the  particular  sum  asked  for,  Mr.  Long  said 
that  it  would  be  premature  for  him  to  make  any  announce- 
ment— he  was   not   in  a  position  to  do   so,  and   "  he  was 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE    WAR  243 

not  at  all  sure  that  the  £20,000,000  named  was  even  an 
index  of  what  might  be  required  if  this  work  was  to  be 
properly  carried  out." 

In  regard  to  the  terms  on  which  the  money  should  be 
lent  by  the  Government  the  members  of  the  deputation 
made  the  definite  suggestion  that  the  terms  granted  should 
be  similar  to  those  given  by  the  Treasury  in  the  case  of 
housing  schemes   for  munition   workers. 

The  following  paragraphs  from  the  Memorandum  sub- 
mitted by  them  are  of  special  importance  : 

In  regard  to  the  conditions  under  which  the  capital  sam  asked  for 
(;f20,ooo,ooo)  should  be  lent,  the  members  of  the  Deputation  feel  that  they 
should  urge  most  strongly  the  necessity  for  giving  an  assurance  to  Local 
Authorities  and  other  agencies  that  the  whole  of  the  capital  sum  will  be  avail- 
able and  will  be  advanced  on  the  terms  determined  on  by  His  Majesty's 
Government,  until  it  is  all  applied  for,  and,  further,  that  in  view  of  the  special 
difficulties  which  will  be  present  at  the  close  of  the  war,  His  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment, in  making  loans  from  this  capital  sum,  should  give  a  substantial  contri- 
bution in  the  form  of  grants  in  aid — or  in  other  forms.  In  doing  so  His 
Majesty's  Government  will  be  following  the  precedent  already  set  in  the 
framing  of  the  terms  for  lending  the  ;^4,ooo,ooo  provided  under  the  Housing 
(No.  2)  Act,  1914,  and  will  be  continuing  the  practice  of  the  Treasury  in  regard 
to  loans  for  the  provision  of  houses  for  munition  workers. 

How  essential  it  is  that  such  aid  should  be  given  will  be  clear  from  the 
following  tables  showing  : 

(a)  The  annual  and  weekly  rent  which  a  Local  Authority  required  to  charge 
in  1913  for  a  cottage  costing  ;^235  (including  roads  and  lands),  the  money  being 
lent  by  the  Public  Works  Loan  Commissioners  at  3J  per  cent.  ;  and 

(6)  The  rent  which  the  same  Local  Authority  will  need  to  charge  for  a 
cottage  costing  the  same  amount,  the  loan  being  granted  by  the  Public  Works 
Loan  Commissioners  at  the  rate  of  interest  fixed  under  the  Treasury  Minute  of 
November  191 5,  viz.  5  per  cent. 

TABLE   A. 

Per  year.  Per  week. 

£    s.    d.  s.    d. 

Interest  on  ;f 235  at  3j  per  cent       846  32 

Estimated  repayment  of  principal  on  loans  for  different 

periods  (roads,  building  and  land),  los.  per  cent.  ...  136  06 

Rates  assumed  at  8s.  in  the  £,  and  taken  on  an  assumed 

assessment  of  ;^i  I  4    8 

Water  rate — 10  per  cent,  on  ;^ii i     2 

Fire  insurance  on  ;^2 15  at  is.  6d.  per  cent.  036^ 

Repairs  and  maintenance — say,  10  per  cent,  on  gross 

rental         i  16    o 

Management  and  collection — say,  S  per  cent,  on  gross 

rental         o  18    c 


I  li 


£17  15    6  6  II 


244  SOCIAL    REFORM 

TABLE   B. 

Per  year.  Per  week. 

£    S.    d.  s.     d. 

Interest  on  ;f235  at  S  per  cent ii  15    o  4    6J 

Estimated  repayment  of  principal  on  loans  for  different 

periods  (roads,  building  and  land),  8s.  per  cent.      ...         100  o    54 

Rates  assumed  at  8s.  in  the  £,  and  taken  on  an  assumed 

assessment  of  ;f  13  •"         ...        540!  ^    5 

Water  rate — 10  per  cent,  on  ;^I3     160) 

Fire  insurance  on  ;^2i5  at  is.  6d.  per  cent 036^ 

Repairs  and  maintenance — say,  10  per  cent,  on  gross 

rental         2    6 

Management  and  collection — say,  5  per  cent,  on  gross 

rental        130' 

;^22   17     6  8  II 


(In  Table  B  the  assessment  has  been  taken  at  ;^I3  instead  of  ;^ii.) 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  tables  that  the  rise  in  the  rate  of  interest  alone 
will  involve  an  increased  rent  of  2s.  per  week.  This  is  quite  independent  of 
the  advance  in  the  cost  of  building  materials,  and  if  the  cost  of  building 
materials  does  not  decline  at  the  close  of  the  war  an  even  more  serious  advance 
in  the  rents  of  new  houses  will  be  inevitable.  The  difficulties  of  Local 
Authorities  and  other  agencies  in  dealing  with  the  problem  will  be  thus  in- 
creased and  the  case  for  giving  substantial  help  will  be  made  even  more  clear. 

For  the  purpose  of  housing  munition  workers  the  Treasury  have  made  free 
grants  of  from  25  per  cent,  to  30  <per  cent,  of  the  total  cost.  The  case  for 
giving  similar  treatment  to  Local  Authorities  and  other  agencies  undertaking 
building  schemes  during  the  period  of  industrial  dislocation  which  will  follow 
the  war  is  even  more  striking,  and  it  is  felt  that  at  least  the  same  proportion  of 
free  grant  should  be  given  in  aid  of  housing  schemes  to  be  carried  into  effect 
during  the  critical  and  difficult  period  which  will  follow  the  close  of  the  war. 

It  may  further  be  pointed  out  that  if  the  same  proportion  of  free  grant  is 
given  as  in  the  case  of  housing  schemes  for  munition  workers,  the  amount  of 
the  subsidy  given  will  not  be  greater  than  one  day's  cost  of  the  war.  The 
;^20,ooo,ooo  lent  will  enable  nearly  100,000  houses  to  be  built. 

If  the  Ck)vemment  decide  to  adopt  this  policy,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  see  how  they  can  do  otherwise — and  if  local 
authorities  are  encouraged  and  stimulated  to  prepare  useful 
schemes — then  two  results  of  national  importance  will  be 
achieved  : 

1 .  The  workmen  in  the  building  trade  may  at  the 
close  of  the  war  be  set  free  from  military  service 
without  fear  of  the  coming  of  a  crisis  of  unemploy- 
ment ;    and 

2.  The  energies  of  those  building -trade  workmen 
who  will  not   be  absorbed  by  the  demands   of  the 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE    WAR  245 

ordinary  labour   market  in  the  building'  industry  will 

be  wisely  used  in  the  construction  of  small  houses  of 

real  service  to  the  community,  and  these  small  houses 

will  be  provided  at  a  time  when  they  wUl  be  in  special 

demand. 

That  the  period  will  be  one  of  special  demand  for  new 

houses — unless  the  loss  of  life  amongst  our  soldiers  is  much 

more   terrible   than    we   anticipate — will   be   made    clear   by 

the  following  figures  of  marriages  in  England  and  Wales  : 

Marriages  in  England  and  Wales. 

1913.        March  60,964 

June 65,792 

September 83,582 

December 76,032 

286,370 


1914.        March  51,016 

June 81,096 

September 82,024 

December 79,95i 


1915.        March           55,4o6 

June 97,038 

September 102,567 

December 105,015 


294,087 


360,026 


It  will  be  seen  from  these  figures  that  in  the  war  year 
of  1 9 1 5  the  number  of  marriages  in  England  and  Wales 
(and  not  including'  Scotland)  exceeded  those  in  the  pre- 
war year  of  191 3  by  73,656. 

The  new  homes  demanded  by  those  who  have  thus  con- 
tracted war  marriages  and  who  have  postponed  the  estab- 
lishment of  their  homes  until  the  coming  of  peace  will 
make  an  appreciable  difference  to  the  demand  for  cottages 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  even  although — alas  ! — many  of  them 
will  have  made  "  the  supreme  sacrifice,"  and  the  number 
will  be  diminished  to  this  extent. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  need  for  making 
definite  preparation  to  deal  with  the  housing  problems  which 
will  present  themselves  for  solution  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  a  word  may  be  added  as  to  thje  desirability  of  passing, 
before  the  close  of  the  war,  legislation  to  amend  the  Finance 
Act  of  1909-10  in  such  a  way  as  to  remove  completely 
the  grievance  under  which  builders  suffer. 

In  his  reply  to  the  deputation  already  referred  to,   Mr. 


246  SOCIAL    REFORM 

Walter  Long  distinctly  stated  that  he  regards  the  Govern- 
ment as  pledged  to  carry  a  measure  of  reform.  The 
importance  of  fulfilling  the  pledge  given  in  March  1914  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  cannot  be  too  strongly  urged. 
Every  year  in  normal  times  at  least  100,000  new  cottages 
are  needed  to  meet  the  growth  of  the  population  and  to 
enable  unfit  houses  to  be  closed  without  the  production  of  a 
house  famine.  Hitherto  95  per  cent,  of  the  houses  con- 
structed have  been  supplied  by  private  enterprise,  and  if 
for  any  reason  the  private  investor  neglects  this  field 
a  problem  of  great  magnitude  will  present  itself  for 
solution. 

Housing  in  the  Years  following  the  War. 

When  the  first  year  following  the  close  of  the  war  has 
been  passed  through,  the  housing  movement  will  enter  upon 
a  period  of  great  difficulty,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  notes  : 

1 .  It  is  clear  from  the  figures  given  earlier  in  this 
chapter  that  the  hope  of  the  cheap  cottage  must  be  placed 
aside  for  at  least  a  generation.  With  capital  bearing 
interest  at  5  per  cent,  (at  least)  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
it  will  be  possible  to  let  a  cottage,  costing  £250  for  build- 
ing construction,  roads,  and  land,  at  a  rent  less  than  from 
9s.  to  9s.  6d.  per  week.  The  rent  can  hardly  be  put 
lower  than  this  even  in  those  districts  where  the  cost  of 
building  is  relatively  low.  In  the  London  area  it  will 
probably  be  £350  per  cottage,  with  a  rent  corresponding 
to  this. 

2.  With  the  expiration  of  the  Increase  of  Rent  and 
Mortgage  Interest  Act  those  lending  money  on  exist- 
ing property  will,  in  many  cases,  take  the  opportunity  of 
demanding  higher  rates  of  interest  on  their  mortgages,  and 
the  houseowners  paying  these  higher  rates  of  interest  will 
have  no  choice  but  to  increase  their  rents.  To  the  extent 
to  which  the  rents  are  substantially  raised  there  will  be 
much  dissatisfaction,  and  rent  disputes  will  trouble  public 
peace. 

In  this  relation  it  will  be  of  service  to  emphasize  the 
point  that  workmen  and  employers  must  in  dealing  with 
wage  disputes  in  the  years  following  the  war  calculate 
on  a  ^much  larger  expenditure  in  house  rent.  This  wiU  at 
once  be  admitted  by  those  w'ho  are  familiar  with  housing 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE    WAR  247 

conditions  in  rural  England.  No  hope  can  be  entertained 
for  the  building  of  cottages  and  letting  them  at  economic 
rents  if  the  old  pre-war  standards  of  rural  wages  are  con- 
tinued. This  is  also  true  of  the  wages  of  the  great  mass 
of  poorly  paid  labourers  in  the  town. 

3.  In  the  five  years  preceding  the  war  two  of  the  great 
parties  in  the  State  had  developed  distinct  housing  policies, 
and,  assuming  that  these  policies  will  hold  good  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  they  may  be  thus  summarized  : 

The  Unionist  housing  policy  is  one  of  aid  to  local 
authorities  to  house  the  poorest  members  of  the  com- 
munity at  a  loss  and  to  imeet  the  deficit  in  the  finance 
of  housing  schemes  by  State  grants. 

The   Liberal    housing    policy,    whilst    providing   for 
the  giving  of  general  g'rants  in  aid  of  housing  efforts 
by    local    authorities,    has    as    its    central    feature    the 
raising  of   wages   in   order   to   secure   that  all   classes 
of   the    community    shall    be   enabled   to    have    decent 
housing  accommodation. 
The  members  of  the  Labour  Party,  with  that  close  and 
intimate  knowledge  which  they  possess   of  all  social  ques- 
tions, have  adopted  a  line  of  policy  which  combines  both 
these  policies. 

The  war  has  taught  us  the  value  of  unity  in  a  fight  to 
safeguard  the  future  of  democracy  and  liberty.  It  will 
be  well  if  the  war  can  also  teach  us  the  value  of  national 
unity  in  working  to  secure  national  health.  It  should  not, 
therefore,  be  too  much  to  hope  that  all  parties  will  be 
brought  into  harmonious  relation  and  that,  by  common 
agreement,  all  useful  methods  of  attack  on  bad  housing 
wiU  be  adopted. 

That  housing  reformers  are  ready  to  support  such  an 
agreed  policy  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  at  the  National 
Congress,  already  referred  to,  the  following  resolution  was 
passed  : 

This  Congress  urges  all  parties  in  the  State  to  take  combined  action  to 
secure  that  every  family  shall  be  housed  under  proper  conditions,  and  in  order 
to  secure  this  end,  which  is  of  vital  and  national  importance,  urges  that  legisla- 
tion should  be  introduced  : 

(a)  to  set  up  machinery  in  all  industries  to  require  employers  to  pay 
wages  sufficient  to  ensure  decent  housing  accommodation  for  the  workers 
in  these  industries  ;  and 

(6)  to  secure  that,  where  such  raising  of  wages  can  only  be  achieved 
by  stages,  the  Local  Authority  shall  recognize  and  fulfil  the  duty  of 
providing  decent  housing  accommodation  for  those  unable  meanwhile 


248  SOCIAL    REFORM 

to  pay  an  economic  rent,  and  that  the  whole  country  shall  bear  the 
difference  in  the  cost  between  the  rent  of  the  decent  dwelling  and  the  rent 
which  the  tenants  can  afford  to  pay. 

It  is  an  interesting  commentary  on  our  former  lack  of 
earnestness  in  dealing  with  the  housing  problem  to  state 
that  which  will  be  recognized  to  be  true  by  all  who  are 
in  touch  with  members  of  the  great  political  parties — viz. 
that  the  coming  of  the  Great  War  has  brought  the  achieve- 
ment of  the  task  of  housing  reformers  appreciably  nearer 
to  accomplishment. 

A  great  war  is  now  in  progress,  and  a  colossal  expendi- 
ture is  being  cheerfully  borne  on  the  ground  that  the 
national  honour  is  involved.  This  expenditiure  is  now  esti- 
mated to  exceed  £5,000,000  per  day,  or  £140,000,000 
every  four  weeks.  The  latter  amount  would  suffice  to 
provide  absolutely  new  homes,  with  ample  accommodation, 
for  the  whole  of  the  working-class  population  living  at 
present  under  unfit  conditions.  In  other  words,  an  expen- 
diture equal  to  that  of  four  weeks'  cost  of  the  war  would 
remove  absolutely  the  reproach  of  bad  housingi  conditions 
from  the  national  honour. 

It  may  be  urged  that  at  the  end  of  the  war  we  shall  be 
so  poor  that  as  a  nation  we  cannot  afford  to  deal  with  this 
problem.  But  after  thirty  months  of  unparalleled  expendi- 
ture on  the  war  almost  every  place  of  amusement  is  open 
and  great  crowds  pay,  in  the  aggregate,  huge  sums  to  be 
amused.  That  after  the  war  is  over  we  shall  still  be  rich 
enough  to  pay  to  be  amused  is  beyond  question,  and  it 
should  not  be  too  much  to  hope  that  we  shall  be  sufficiently 
mindful  of  the  debt  we  owe  to  the  poorest  members  of  the 
community  of  securing  for  them  good  conditions  of  home 
life.  Every  thoughtful  citizen  will  agree  with  Mr.  Walter 
Long  in  the  view  he  takes  of  the  national  duty  to  the 
returning  soldier  : 

It  would  indeed  be  a  crime — a  black  crime — if,  reading  as  we  do  the 
wonderful  accounts  of  the  sufferings  which  our  heroes  have  to  undergo  in 
the  trenches  (I  do  not  mean  the  sufferings  which  are  the  inevitable  accompani- 
ment of  war  in  the  shape  of  wounds  and  death,  but  the  physical  sufferings 
from  the  horrible  discomforts  attendant  on  trench  warfare  as  it  is  now  carried 
on)  we  sat  still  now  and  did  nothing  by  way  of  preparation  to  ensure  that  when 
these  men  come  home  they  shall  be  provided  for  with  as  little  delay  as 
possible.  To  let  them  come  from  the  horrible  water-logged  trenches  to 
something  little  better  than  a  pigsty  here  would  be  indeed  criminal  on  the 
part  of  ourselves  and  would  be  a  negation  of  all  we  have  said  during  this  war 
that  we  can  never  repay  these  men  for  what  they  have  done  for  us. 


HOUSING    AFTER    THE   WAR  .249 

4 .  Housing  reformers  of  all  shades  of  opinion  are  rapidly 
coming  into  agreement  as  to  the  need  for  making  the 
preparation  of  Town  Planning  schemes  under  the  Act  of 
1909  obligatory  on  all  local  authorities,  urban  and  rural. 
To  suggest  that  Town  Planning  schemes  should  be  prepared 
for  purely  rural  areas  seems  on  the  face  of  it  absurd  ; 
but  a  little  reflection  will  show  that  Rural  Planning 
schemes,  if  prepared  with  care  and  good  judgment,  will 
be  just  as  useful  as  Urban  Planning  schemes.  The  advent 
of  heavy  motor  traffic  on  15 -feet  country  lanes,  the  danger 
that  when  the  100,000  cottages  which  are  needed  in  rural 
districts  are  provided  they  may  prove  to  be  ugly  duplicates 
of  urban  cottages  built  in  dreary  rows,  the  need  for  securing 
that  all  new  villages  should  possess  some  aesthetic  charm — 
are  all  considerations  which  will  operate  powerfully  in  the 
direction  of  securing  that  rural  planning  shall  be  made 
obligatory. 

In  the  towns  the  opportunity  furnished  by  the  Town 
Planning  clauses  of  the  Act  of  1909  in  enabling  local 
authorities  to  fix  a  maxim,um  to  the  number  of  houses 
per  acre,  and  in  providing  that  each  new  housing  area 
shall  be  developed  on  well -planned  lines,  will  provide 
housing  reformers  with  an  abundance  of  arguments  in 
favour  of  making  it  obligatory  on  every  urban  local 
authority  to  take  Town  Planning  action  within  a  reasonable 
time. 

5.  The  possible  shortage  in  the  supply  of  capital  at 
the  disposal  of  private  enterprise  in  the  years  following 
the  war  may  render  imperative  the  development  of  a 
municipal  housing  policy,  with  several  alternative  or  sup- 
plementary lines  of  action.  Up  to  the  present  the  housing 
action  of  local  authorities  has  been  mainly  confined  to 
the  building  and  letting  of  houses  to  municipal  tenants. 
But  there  is  no  reason  why  other  lines  of  action 
should  not  be  adopted,  and  housing  reformers  are  now 
giving  their  earnest  consideration  to  a  series  of  interesting 
proposals  framed  by  Councillor  Shawcross — the  Chairman 
of  the  National  Housing  and  Town  Planning  Council — 
who  proposes  that  local  authorities  should  be  given  powers 
to  acquire  estates,  and  after  laying  out  the  sites  on  Town 
Planning  lines  to  lease  these  sites  and  advance  public 
money,  under  well-defined  conditions,  to  all  who  may  desire 
to  build  houses  for  the  working  classes.  He  further  pro- 
poses that  local  authorities  should  be  empowered  to  forni 


250  SOCIAL    REFORM 

public  utility  societies  under  municipal  auspices  and  to  lend 
money  to  public  utility  societies  for  the  housing  of  the 
working  classes. 

It  is  not  possible  within  the  limits  of  this  chapter  to 
develop  the  case  in  favour  of  these  proposals,  but  it  may 
be  added  that  there  is  good  ground  for  the  belief  that 
public  opinion  in  support  of  them  will  ripen  quickly  in 
the  period  following  the  war. 

It  will  be  in  keeping  with  the  general  spirit  of  the  book 
of  which  this  chapter  forms  a  part  to  urge,  in  conclusion, 
that,  in  the  years  following  the  war,  a  sense  of  national 
duty  should  compel  us  to  spare  no  pains  in  making  the 
nation  efficient.  To  be  efficient  we  must,  however,  amongst 
many  other  things,  take  steps  to  secure  that  the  condi- 
tions within  each  home,  and  the  surrounding  of  each  home, 
shall  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  give  the  members  of 
each  family  reason  for  pride  in  their  British  nationality. 

Time  will  show  whether  we  have  learned,  as  a  nation, 
the  lesson  of  these  months  and  years  of  national  stress  and 
strain:  in  other  words,  whether  those  whose  homes  and 
lives  have  been  defended  have  sufficient  gratitude  for,  and 
remembrance  of,  services  rendered,  and  will  pay  their  debts 
of  honour  to  those  who  have  served  them  so  well,  or, 
whether,  with  the  passing  away  of  danger  the  old  pre-war 
selfishness  and   neglect   of  social   conditions  will   reappear. 


CHAPTER    XV 

National  Health 

By  JAMES  KERR,  M.A.,  M.D.,  D.P.H. 

"If  people  were  shot,  drowned,  burnt,  or  poisoned  by 
strychnine,  their  deaths  would  not  be  more  unnatural  than 
the  deaths  wrought  clandestinely  by  disease  in  excess  of 
the  quota  of  natural  deaths  ;  that  is,  in  excess  of  17 
deaths  per  thousand  living."  So  wrote  Dr.  Farr  in  one 
of  his  illuminating  reports  many  years  ago.  The  death- 
rate  of  England  and  Wales  now  runs  below  the  figure 
which  he  named,  and  this  reduction  seems  due  to  public 
sanitary  provision.  Greater  advance  in  national  health  is 
possible,  as  preventable  losses  in  health  and  life  are 
quite  evident  in  the  community,  and  there  is  much 
sickness  not  fatal,  yet  materially  contributing  to  loss  of 
efficiency. 

The  war  has  brought  out  two  doctrines  with  clearness  ; 
the  first  is  the  necessity  for  physical  and  mental  efficiency 
in  every  citizen,  and  the  second  that  there  must  be  unity 
and  solidarity  in  the  nation.  From  these  it  follows  by 
implication  that,  however  the  individual  may  be  expected 
to  strive  for  health,  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  State 
to  maintain  each  one  at  the  highest  point  of  physical 
perfection  ;  to  neglect  no  means,  whether  by  legislative 
or  financial  effort,  to  achieve  this,  whilst  repressing 
all  conditions  which  hinder  or  are  in  conflict  with  its 
attainment. 

Apart  from  the  fundamental  needs  of  space  to  live  in, 
air  to  breathe,  and  food,  the  first  requisites  for  health  in 

251 


252  SOCIAL    REFORM  • 

a  settled  community  are  good  water  supplies  and  the 
removal  of  refuse.  The  necessity  for  extensive  provision 
of  pure  water,  and  the  inoffensive  removal  of  refuse,  has 
not  been  evident  always.  Disease  and  death,  however, 
in  the  form  of  epidemics,  especially  plague  and  typhus, 
have  been  the  great  masters  whose  teaching  brought  about 
reforms  in  the  second  half  of  last  century  which  gave  this 
country  a  isanitary  lead  among  other  lands. 

Water  and  Drainage. — In  times  of  drought  newspapers 
sometimes  help  the  realization  of  the  astonishing  wonder 
of  how  water  has  been  provided  for  most  of  the  country 
by  public  effort  and  at  but  slight  cost  to  each  user.  The 
hills  are  drained,  underground  lakes  tapped,  valleys  con- 
verted into  reservoirs,  conduits  stretch  across  moors  and 
through  valleys,  and  great  basins  receive  the  water  to  settle 
and  purify,  giving  an  abundant  supply  for  every  want  and 
to  every  person  at  a  cost  impossible  otherwise  except  to 
dwellers  by  lake  or  riverside. 

Enteric  fever,  which  lurks  latent  in  all  communities,  is 
an  indicator  of  water  impurity.  Individual  carriers  of  the 
germs  who  themselves  may  exhibit  no  illness  exist  in  such 
numbers,  that  wherever  for  considerable  time  concourses  of 
people  are  collected,  or  armies  take  the  field,  under  in- 
adequate sanitary  conditions,  the  disease  is  likely  to  show 
itself  actively  and  to  spread.  In  the  present  war  it  has 
only  been  kept  under  through  artificial  immunity  conferred 
by  inoculation.  In  a  similar  way  cholera  or  plague  is 
expected,  and  often  appears,  among  the  pilgrims  of  the 
East, 

The  number  of  deaths  from  enteric  fever  in  England 
has  steadily  decreased,  and  this  decline  has  generally 
coincided  with  the  introduction  of  supplies  of  pure  water 
and  in  removal  of  excreta  and  wastes  by  drainage  which 
does  not  contaminate  the  water.  Whilst  the  typhoid  death- 
rates  for  London  are  about  half  of  those  for  the  rest  of 
the  country,  yet  many  outlying  parts  of  the  Empire  suffer 
much  from  this  disease — for  instance,  Canada,  Australia, 
and  South  Africa.  During  and  after  the  Boer  War  an 
outbreak  was  almost  to  be  expected  by  the  return  to  this 
country  of  numbers  of  active  or  latent  cases  in  the  Army. 
The  upward  move  of  mortality  occurred  as  foreseen,  but 
did  not  long  persist,  and  furnished  an  unexpected  but  suffi- 
cient testimony  to  the  general  excellence  of  existing  water 
and  drainage  arrangements. 


NATIONAL    HEALTH 


■253 


The  Registrar-General  in  his  seventy-second  Report  states 
of  typhoid  fever  :  '*  Continuous  decline  in  mortality  has 
been  the  prevailing  rule  in  the  more  progressive  countries 
of  Europe,  and  the  interruption  in  the  line  of  descent  .  .  . 
finds  no  place  in  the   curves  of  their  mortality." 

In  matters  so  important  to  the  health  of  the  commimity 
as  water  supply  it  is  evident  that  the  provision  is  not  one 
which  should  be  allowed  as  a  monopoly  of  individuals. 
All  the  necessities  for  health  must  be  protected  by  public 
provision.  The  example  set  by  the  Canadian  Government 
in  making  water  power  a  common  possession  of  the 
community  incapable  of  private  ownership  is  an  example 
to  be  followed. 

Light    and    warmth    are    also    necessities.      The    mere 


'  K  .  .  .  ■ 


Death-rates  from  Typhoid  Fever  per  Million  Living,  from 
1869  to  1914. 


maintenance  of  the  standard  of  haemoglobin  in  the  blood 
depends  on  sufficient  exposure  to  the  light  of  day,  and 
streets  and  courts  and  houses  where  sunlight  never  comes 
are  unhealthy  places  to  live  in.  With  artificial  light  ample 
provision  must  be  secured  among  machinery  to  protect 
from  accident,  and  for  fine  work  to  protect  from  fatigue 
and  strain,  properly  distributed  to  prevent  the  pain  of 
glare  or  the  degenerating  efi"ect  of  myopia  noticeable  in 
immature  eyes.  Means  of  measuring  illumination  and 
standardizing  light  are  so  good  that  effective  supplies 
can  be  defined  and  secured  by  the  necessary  legislative 
action . 

•  The  return  from  the  Boer  War. 


2  54  SOCIAL    REFORM  ^ 

Formerly,  as  still  in  remote  country  districts,  the  person 
who  ventured  forth  on  a  moonless  night  had  to  carry  his 
own  lantern,  or  a  torch -bearer  had  to  light  the  way,  and 
in  some  of  the  older  residential  districts  the  street 
extinguishers  remain  of  the  generations  who  with  their 
torches  have  passed  for  ever.  Gas  laid  in  mains,  or 
electricity,  furnishes  the  lighting  of  streets  and  houses.  No 
individual  effort  could  so  cheaply  or  easily  have  afforded 
the  means  of  extending  working  hours,  or  ensuring  the 
safety  of  the  roads,  which  has  been  done  by  this  distribu- 
tion of  lighting  from  a  common  centre. 

As  with  water,  the  amounts  of  light  and  heat  necessary 
for  health  should  be  available  for  every  one.  Unfortu- 
nately collective  action  to  secure  the  benefit  of  these  com- 
modities for  the  community,  and  others  such  as  transport, 
fuel,  milk,  and  many  other  necessities,  was  not  recognized 
early  enough,  and  a  community  wishing  to  provide  for  itself 
now  finds  opposition  and  friction.  Claims  and  interests 
may  end  in  water  becoming  an  item  costly  beyond  any 
expense  of  collecting,  storing,  purifying,  or  distributing, 
and  the  price  of  gas  or  electricity  exceed  any  reasonable 
cost  of  production. 

Town  and  Country. — Hitherto  the  healthy  coimtry  dis- 
tricts have  recruited  the  towns,  but  now  urbanization  has 
gone  so  far  that  about  four -fifths  of  the  population  is 
crowded  on  a  two -hundredth  of  the  land  surface  of  the 
country.  Town  life  usually  seems  to  offer  many  advan- 
tages by  comparison  with  rural  life  ;  there  is  good  water, 
efficient  sewage  removal,  prevention  of  nuisances,  provision 
of  supplies  of  fuel  and  fresh  food,  ready  communication 
between  individuals,  help  in  the  accidents  and  emergencies 
of  life  or  disease.  These  advantages  are,  however,  dis- 
counted to  many  by  their  inaccessibility.  The  crowding 
on  the  land  in  enormous  barracks  or  in  tiny  houses  may 
mean  that  water  is  only  a  tap  at  the  bottom  of  many  stairs, 
or  the  conveniences  are  so  far  removed  from  living-rooms 
that  cleanliness  is  almost  impossible  with  reasonable  effort. 
Lack  of  space  may  prevent  exercise,  or  noise  preclude 
proper  rest.  The  result  of  environment  shows  up  in  the 
mortality  rates.  From  the  Registrar -General's  seventy- 
seventh  Report  death-rates  for  various  districts  can  be 
obtained,  and  the  table  below  contrasts  the  chief  county 
boroughs  with  rural  districts  and  their  death-rates  for 
various  age  groups  :  .    _ ._  ,,.,_. 


NATIONAL    HEALTH 


255 


DEATH-RATES,   ENGLAND   AND  WALES,  1914. 

Age 
Group 
o —  

5—  

10 —  

15—  

20 —  

25—  

30—  

35—  

40 —  

45—  

50—  

55—  

60—  

65-  

70-  

75—  

80—  

85-  

All  Ages  total 


County 

Rural 

Boroughs 

Districts 

•      44-1 

24-5 

4.0 

2-6 

24 

1-8 

31 

2-6 

37 

3'3 

43 

3-8 

•        55 

45 

.        7-6 

S-2 

10-4 

6-6 

.      138 

8-3 

•      19-4 

I2-I 

.      266 

ifrg 

.      39-8 

25-3 

.      52-8 

387 

•      87-3 

64*0 

.     129-2 

99-8 

.     179-8 

iSS-6 

•    274-3 

2637 

.      161 

10-7 

It  may  be  interesting,  too,  to  contrast  an  industrial  town 
with  a  purely  country  town.  Oldham  and  Oxford  stand 
next  to  each  other  in  the  lists.  For  brevity,  taking  male 
deaths  only,  the  rates  at  various  ages  can  be  obtained  for 
the  years    1911-14  as  follows  : 

DEATH-RATES   FOR   MALES,    1911-1914. 


Age  Groups 

Oldham 

OXFOH 

All  Ages        

.      18-7 

13-4 

0 —             

.      55-6 

26-8 

5 —             

5-8 

2-3 

10 —             

2-2 

1-3 

15-             

3-4 

a-5 

20 —             

3-6 

4-a 

25-             

•        54 

5-2 

35—             

.      10-7 

8-4 

45—             

22-9 

130 

55-            

•      447 

26-3 

65-            

•      929 

S4-8 

75—             

•     194-4 

1330 

85  and  upwards    ... 

•    2384 

2S9'3 

From  these  figures  the  improvement  possible  can  be 
judged  if  Oldham  were  only  brought  up  to  the  standard 
of  Qxford  ;    so  Liverpool,  one  of  the  most  difficult  places 


-256  SOCIAL'    REFORM 

in  England  with  heavy  mortality  rates,  imight  be  com- 
pared to  Bristol,  healthiest  of  ports,  showing  that  the  con- 
ditions of  town  life  are  very  variable,  and  therefore  in 
many  cases  capable  of  improvement,  and  that  rural  existence, 
in  spite  of  drawbacks,  is  free  from  many  hurtful  influences 
on  the  span  of  life. 

The  conditions  immediately  suggesting  themselves  as 
needed  are  sufficiency  of  space,  of  light,  of  comparatively 
clean  fresh  air,  dilution  of  germ  life,  so  that  infections 
are  in  minimal  instead  of  massive  doses.  There  is  also 
desirable  opportunity  for  physiological  nervous  and  bodily 
repair,  which  is  aided  by  restfulness  and  a  sense  of  privacy, 
and  prevented  by  the  constant  strain  of  noise  and  bustle. 
The  diminution  of  noise,  of  hurry,  wear  and  tear,  and 
avoidance  of  causes  of  chronic  fatigue — all  these  are  the 
immediate  future  requirements  for  healthy  lives  in  large 
towns.  Sound-proof  rooms  in  towns  may  be  as  helpful 
to  long  lives  as  a  pure  mUk  supply,  and  occasional  and 
accessible  means  of  resting  are  almost  as  necessary  as 
parks  or  open  spaces. 

General  Requirements  for  Healthy  Lives. — These  require- 
ments work  out  as  good  housing,  a  low  maximum  building 
height  of  two  or  three  stories  at  the  most  for  dwelling- 
houses,  the  maximum  number  of  residents  on  the  acre 
being  legally  restricted,  and  for  all  new  buildings  the 
preservation  of  an  unbuilt  portion  of  the  site  at  least  equal 
to  that   covered  by  building. 

Separation  and  distribution  of  population  thus  secured 
over  wide  areas  further  requires  cheap  and  rapid  transport 
as  a  necessity.  The  daily  scrimtrLage  and  cost  of  car  or 
rail  is  a  serious  item  in  both  nervous  and  pecuniary  ex- 
penditure to  workers.  Very  cheap  or  even  free  transport, 
regardless  of  distance,  in  the  town  should  be  guaranteed 
by  every  urban  community  if  younger  members  are  not 
to  suffer  in  health  from  their  efforts  to  avoid  the  cost 
of  travel. 

Other  conditions  in  which  the  contrast  is  not  so  marked 
in  town  and  country,  but  which  affect  large  sections,  are 
the  long  hours  of  labour,  entailing  want  of  opportunity  for 
complete  recreation  and  healthful  exercise,  freedom  from 
worry  about  to-morrow,  reasonable  security  for  regular 
income  in  health  or  disease.  These  constitute  conditions 
for  national  health  easily  to  be  afforded  by  the  wealth  of 
this  country,  and  should  now  be  definitely  resolved  upon. 


NATIONAL    HEALTH 


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258  SOCIAL    REFORM 

Testing  Progress  and  Comparing  Conditions  of  Health. — 
Many  reports  of  medical  officers  of  health  seem  to  base 
their  chief  considerations  on  the  general  death-rates  of  their 
districts,  and  year  by  year  the  same  trite  and  unimportant 
observations  are  made  on  mortality.  Death-rates  thus  used 
are  but  poor  indicators  of  health  conditions,  and  might 
not  only  give  misleading  impressions  but  even  conceal 
disease. 

The  Registrar -General  recently  pointed  out  that  the  crude 
death-rate  of  Lancashire,  with  all  its  factories  and  labour, 
was  lower  by  7' 8  per  cent,  than  that  of  quiet,  restful 
agricultural  Cardiganshire.  Allowing,  however,  for  the  age 
and  sex  distribution  of  the  population,  the  corrected  death- 
rate  is  29*4  per  cent,  in  excess.  Lancashire,  which  uses 
up  its  people  in  its  manufacturing,  has  an  abnormally  small 
proportion  of  persons  at  the  more  advanced  ages  at  which 
mortality  is  high,  whilst  Cardiganshire  contains  an  abnor- 
mally large  proportion  of  old  people.  In  Lancashire  less 
than  2>2  V^^  cent,  exceed  sixty-five  years  of  age,  whilst 
m  Cardiganshire  it  is  about  9  per  cent. 

If  instead  of  simply  taking  death-rates  as  a  vitality 
measure  of  the  population  these  are  analysed  into  their 
different  age  groups,  the  alteration  in  recent  years  may  be 
judged.  Whilst  among  women  and  young  persons  the 
improvement  has  been  steady,  it  is  wanting  among  mature 
men,  and  the  premature  attrition  of  these  men  goes  on 
with  unabated  vigour. 

When  these  mortality  rates  of  populations  are  synthe- 
sized by  the  actuarial  process  of  constructing  a  life  table, 
an  exact  measuring  scale  is  got  of  what  would  happen 
to  100,000  infants  bom,  if  they  lived  under  the  condi- 
tions existing  at  the  time  and  place  considered.  By  such 
means  th-e  vitalities  of  populations  for  which  life  tables 
have  been  made  become  exactly  comparable  in  terms  of 
deaths  and  survivals.  Few  medical  officers  of  health  have 
prepared  life  tables  for  their  separate  localities,  not  having 
appreciated  that  the  considerable  trouble  is  well  repaid  by 
their  immense  value  as  a  measure  of  local  conditions. 
Fortunately  those  in  charge  of  the  national  statistics  fully 
understand  this.  Life  tables  for  Scottish  towns,  based  on 
the  1 9 1 1  Census,  have  appeared,  and  later  similar  ones 
for  England  are  to  be  expected,  and  will  be  a  powerful 
stimulus  to  imcrease  interest  and  regard  for  the  national 
health. 


NATIONAL    HEALTH 


^259 


Taking  various  periodic  life  tables  published  for  England 
and  Wales,  there  has  been  an  increase  in  the  expectation 
of  life  at  birth. 


Expectation  of 

Life  at 

Birth. 

1838-1854 

1871-80 

1881-90 

1891-00 

Males 

39"9i 

41-35 

43-66 

44-13 

Females     

41-85 

44-62 

47-18 

47-77 

If  now  the  age  of  fifty  is  considered,  instead  of  a  gain  an 
actual  loss  has  been  taking  place. 


Expectation  of  Life  at  Fifty. 

1838-1854 

1871-80 

1881-90 

1891-00 

Males  •■ 

19-54 

18-93 

18-82 

18-90 

Females     

2075 

20-68 

20-56 

20-64 

The  Registrar -General  pointed  out  in  1909  that  when 
the  national  mortality  figures  are  examined  the  English 
mortality  experience  between  ten  and  thirty-five  is  very 
favourable  compared  with  other  countries,  but  at  older 
ages  equally  unfavourable,  especially  for  the  male  sex. 
Spain  and  Scotland  alone  have  higher  mortality  ;  indeed, 
at  fifty -five  to  sixty-five  for  males  Scotland  has  the  highest 
mortality  of  all. 

Whilst  the  death-rates  at  school  ages  by  the  end  of  the 
century  had  been  reduced  to  one -third  of  what  they  were 
sixty  years  before,  that  of  men  over  forty -five  was  actually 
in  excess,  and  it  is  only  in  the  last  decennium  that  a 
promise  of  a  turn  in  the  tide  shows.  "  There  is  a  marked 
correspondence  between  the  ages  at  which  mortality  in 
towns  is  highest,  as  compared  with  the  country,  and  the 
ages  at  which  England  exceeds  other  countries .  Great 
Britain  can  scarcely  accept  as  inevitable  a  death-rate 
among  men  of  forty-five  to  fifty-five,  exceeded  only  by 
two  countries,  and  for  men  of  fifty -five  to  sixty- five,  ex- 
ceeded only  by  Spain,  whUst  its  general  death-rate  is  so 
low.     This  is  a  preventable  mortality,  the  causes  of  which 


26o  SOCIAL    REFORM 

should  be  sought  out  and  publicly  remedied."  Although 
only  hinted  at  officially,  there  is  little  doubt  that  this  is 
the  tax  in  life  which  England  has  to  pay  for  her  industrial 
fortunes . 

The  Industrial  Tax  on  Health. — The  introduction  of 
machinery  scarcely  benefited  the  individual  worker.  Indeed, 
whole  classes  were  displaced,  because  one  man  by  machinery 
might  do  the  work  previously  managed  by  ten  ;  but  it  was 
the  owner  of  the  machinery  who  made  the  gain,  and  the 
other  nine  men  went  without  compensation  for  the  work 
from  which  they  were  displaced.  Long  hours,  monotonous 
work,  often  under  depressing  and  insanitary  conditions,  have 
been  but  slowly  modified  by  legislation,  the  protection  of 
which  is  only  maintained  by  continual  inspection  and 
penalties.  A  national  ideal  and  sanitary  conscience  has 
yet  to  be  built  up.  No  man  has  a  right  to  control  any 
other  without  respect  to  the  community.  "Every  society 
is  judged  and  survives,"  said  Mr.  Asquith,  "according 
to  the  material  and  moral  minimlim  which  it  prescribes 
for  its  members."  When  the  Prussian  peril  has  been 
destroyed  the  touchstone  of  existence  for  the  British  Empire 
will  be  National  Health,  as  thus  defined  years  ago  by  the 
Premier. 

Factory  legislation  is  a  gradual  prescription  of  minimal 
health  conditions  for  the  workers.  Like  public  sanitation, 
it  also  emerged  from  the  results  of  typhus  epidemics  re- 
current in  manufacturing  towns.  Dr.  Percival,  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Manchester  Royal  Infirmary,  started  the 
agitation  which  resulted  at  the  beginning  of  last  century 
in  the  "  Health  and  Morals  of  Apprentices  Act."  In  the 
next  generation  Oastler,  whose  statue  stands  in  the  centre  of 
Bradford,  stirred  up  a  newspaper  agitation  for  a  ten  hours' 
day,  which  achieved  success  seventeen  years  later.  Red 
herrings  are  always  trailed  across  the  path,  results  are  not 
reached  in  a  day.  The  factory  inspector,  whose  appear- 
ance was  almost  accidental,  was  opposed  as  interfering  with 
the  liberty  of  the  subject  ;  women's  rights  were  supposed 
to  be  invaded  by  legislation  regarding  dangerous  occupa- 
tions for  women  and  children,  and  parents'  rights  are  stiU 
often  urged  to  be  too  sacred  to  permit  public  interference 
for  the  health  of  the  child — but  war  should  have  shown 
by  now  that  in  protecting  its  members  the  community  has 
greater  rights  than  any  parent. 

After  another  quarter  of  a  century  the  agitation  began 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  '261 

for  less  hours  of  labour  in  order  that  the  workers  might 
share  in  rest  and  leisure  the  gains  conferrled  by  the  powers 
of  machinery.  Two  inspectors,  Dr.  Bridges  and  Mr. 
Holmes,  reported  in  1873  that  pressure  on  the  workers 
was  steadily  increasing,  more  machines  to  each,  and  work- 
ing at  higher  speeds.  "  A  separate  machine  for  each 
minute  step  in  the  manufacture  entails  upon  the  person 
in  charge  a  constant  repetition  of  the  same  action,  un- 
relieved by  any  interest  in  the  thing  itself,  or  calling  for 
any  exercise  of  the  mind,  and  yet  needing  unremitting 
attention."  This  is  descriptive  of  the  substance  of  factory 
work  a  generation  ago,  and  not  of  modem  American  drive. 
Legislation  now  develops  sanitation  as  an  aim  in  regard 
to  some  of  the  grosser  infractions,  but  the  minima  secured 
are  invariably  too  low.  There  are  industries  which  do 
not  provide  the  means  of  existence,  but  sweat  more  out 
of  the  workers  than  the  wages  paid,  and  after  their  health 
is  exhausted  by  toil  these  workers  are  thrown  through 
no  fault  of  their  own  on  the  social  rubbish -heap.  These 
'*  sweated  industries,"  as  Sidney  Webb  has  so  well 
described,  are  parasitic  on  the  community  and  constitute 
a  standing  drain  upon  the  vitality  of  the  nation.  Legisla- 
tion must  go  on  until  it  secures  in  all  occupations,  not  a 
living  wage,  but  a  healthy  minimum,  providing  not  merely 
time  to  eat  and  sleep,  but  time  for  recreation,  as  a  set-off 
equal  to  full  recovery  from  the  fatigue  of  working  hours, 
and  any  further  efficiency  methods  must  not  mean  further 
sweating  of  the  worker,  but  secure  to  him  the  increased 
profits .  The  recent  railway  troubles  have  shown  that  wages 
should  not  be  reckoned  in  sterling',  but  in  reference  to 
health,  by  their  purchasing  power  being  regulated  by  an 
index  depending  on  the  cost  of  the  means  of  nutrition,  thus 
setting  a  health  standard  instead  of  a  monetary  standard. 

The  already  quoted  statistics  of  the  Registrar-General 
show  this  condemnation  of  many  industrial  conditions  not 
too  drastic,  for  whilst  the  death-rate  of  children  is  one- 
third  that  of  sixty  years  ago,  yet  the  average  man  or 
woman  of  fifty  has  a  shorter  life  before  them  than  their 
grandparents  had  at  the  same  age.  So  much  for  present 
industrial  efficiency  in  relation  to  health. 

The  public  health  must  concern  itself  with  all  that  affects 
the  health  or  wealth  of  the  citizens,  their  completeness  in 
body  and  mind. 

Healthy   Infancy.— The   birth    of   the    child   under    good 


'262  SOCIAL'    REFORM 

conditions  means  protection  and  care  of  the  mother.  The 
enormous  reduction  in  infant  mortality,  practically  initiated 
by  Alderman  Broadbent,  when  Mayor  of  Huddersfield,  has 
pointed  out  the  way  by  study  of  conditions,  by  education, 
and  by  improvement  in  the  environment,  not  only  to 
improve  the  health  of  infants,   but  also  of  other  ages. 

The  reduction  of  the  birth-rate  goes  on  very  steadily  ; 
it  is  mainly  due  to  artificial  restriction,  and  is  of  serious 
import  to  national  welfare.  Women  who  under  present 
social  conditions  must  often  work  do  all  they  can  to  avoid 
maternity,  as  is  also  the  frequent  case  with  the  parasitic 
class  of  woman.  The  wide  use  of  notoriously  dangerous 
materials  shows  the  risks  women  run  to  avoid  this.  Every 
mother  should  be  placed  imder  secure  conditions  ;  the 
bearing  of  a  child  should  not  be  penalized  but  made  fully 
worth  her  while.  Marriage  is  often  made  a  bar  to  occupa- 
tion, but  the  excluding  of  any  woman  from  her  post  on 
this  account  ought  to  be  illegal.  Provision  to  keep  the 
mother's  income  steady  at  her  average  for  the  six  months 
before  and  the  six  months  after  childbirth  is  a  wise  invest- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  State.  A  starving  mother  pro- 
duces offspring  already  handicapped  at  birth  by  a  physique 
defective  in  growth  and  weight.  The  health  and  weight 
of  the  baby  is  the  chief  circumstance  of  national  import- 
ance in  maternity.  The  suckling  at  once  enters  on  a 
career  beset  with  dangers.  The  ophthalmia  of  the  new- 
bom  till  lately  produced  much  blindness,  but  is  now  being 
regulated.  Nourishment  by  the  mother  should  be  so 
encouraged  that  the  mother  who  failed  should  be  regarded 
as  unnatural.  Probably  the  natural  feeding  of  the  child 
is  more  fully  accomplished  than  is  usually  supposed,  but 
the  popular  idea  that  many  women  are  incapable  of  this 
fimction  is  as  untrue  as  it  is  insulting  to  the  women.  In 
spite  of  bad  habit  and  condoning  custom,  at  least  95  per 
cent,  could  nurse  their  children  to  advantage.  The 
dangers  of  artificial  feeding  can  only  be  minimized  by 
education.  Milk  infected  with  massive  doses  of  tubercle 
probably  accounts  for  much  baby  mortality,  and  may 
seriously  contribute  to  the  bone  and  joint  diseases  of  early 
years.  Minimal  doses  of  tubercle  may  actually  immunize 
against  later  infection,  so  that  in  this  respect  the  question 
of  raw  or  sterilized  milk  is  not  yet  settled,  and  but  for 
the  private  peddling  of  milk  would  never  arise.  The 
necessity   of   clean   milk   for   young   children   is   so   great 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  263 

that  the  whole  milk  control  and  distribution  should  be 
a  public  service,  no  other  milk  provision  being  permitted. 
The  present  war  price  of  milk,  even  if  justified,  means  a 
later  crop  of  unhealthy  and  therefore  costly  individuals 
for  the  public  funds. 

Every  kind  of  illness,  even  the  most  trivial,  must  be 
avoided  in  the  determining  period  of  rapid  growth.  For 
instance,  during  these  first  two  years  any  malnutrition, 
febrile  illness,  or  rickets  may  cause  the  permanent  teeth  to 
be  laid  down  so  badly  that  they  only  appear,  to  decay 
fast,  and  later,  through  dental  sepsis  and  gastric  trouble, 
may  predispose  to  tuberculosis  or  other  kinds  of  invalidism 
and  inefficiency.  To  any  one  with  years  of  clinical  experi- 
ence among  hospital  out-patients  this  sequence  is  most 
noteworthy,  obvious,  and  common.  The  zymotic  or  germ- 
caused  fevers  are  heaviest  in  their  .incidence  on  earliest 
childhood.  Cleanliness,  fresh  air,  abundant  food,  and 
opportunity  for  much  free  and  spontaneous  exercise,  both 
before  and  after  school  entry,  are  elements  for  growth  and 
healthy  life  later. 

The  Conscription  of  Children, — A  conscription  of  all 
children  to  attend  for  at  least  five  years  in  the  public 
elementary  schools,  so  that  every  child  of  whatever  social 
origin  should  be  tested  and  classified  as  a  future  citizen, 
would  be  the  readiest  way  to  attain  healthy  conditions. 
Every  objection  urged  to  this  proposition  if  honestly 
examined  will  be  found  an  argument  for  insisting  upon 
its  validity. 

It  has  been  demonstrated  that  tliere  are  in  later  life 
crops  of  children  varying  in  physique  according  to  their 
average  early  environment,  as  shown  by  the  infantile 
mortality  in   their  birth   years. 

Lichens  do  not  grow  in  the  neighbourhood  of  our  cities  ; 
the  city  gardener  has  to  be  careful  of  what  and  how  he 
plants  if  he  wishes  to  see  a  flourishing  growth.  The 
environmental  conditions  of  warmth,  light,  and  air  so  neces- 
sary to  the  vegetable  also  influence  human  growth,  and 
the  plastic  children  are  the  most  afifected.  Anaemic,  rickety 
children   are   produced   by    conditions   that  save   the    rates. 

These  good  nutritional  conditions  are  not  only  required 
for  children,  but  for  all  individuals.  If  the  body  cells  are 
not  kept  fit  by  good  supplies,  and  by  the  prompt  removal 
of  waste  products,  through  the  blood  and  lymph  stream, 
they    are    in    4    debilitated,    fatiglied    condition.      Chronic 


2  64  SOCIAL    REFORM 

fatigue  is  relative,  in  the  heavily  worked  artisan  or  equally 
in  the  unexercised  lady  of  leisure,  due  to  want  of  sufficient 
removal  of  poisonous  cell  products  by  active  circulation 
and  gland  activity.  These  are  the  individuals  easily  caught 
by  germs  causing  disease,  such  as  catarrhal  attacks, 
pneumonia,  or  tuberculosis. 

Sufficient  intermittent  exercise  is  needed  to  maintain  good 
action  of  heart  and  lungs,  and  through  them  movement  of 
the  tissue  fluids  ;  and  sufficient  rest  for  repair.  Especially 
are  these  needed  in  the  growing  child.  Food  in  abundance, 
space  for  active  play,  and  intervals  of  restful  sleep  are 
necessities,  sufficiency  of  which  are  wanting  for  most  town 
children.  One-third  of  the  elementary  school  children  are 
officially  reported  as  in  need  of  mjedical  treatment.  That 
is  why  it  is  insisted  that  all  children  for  five  years  of 
their  life  must  attend  the  public  schools,  to  share  and 
suffer  the  common  lot,  and  to  have  it  raised  to  a  proper 
standard  of  health  and  life. 

Quite  probably  such  records  will  be  quoted  with  horror 
half  a  century  hence  as  showing  the  condition  of  English 
children  at  the  time  of  the  Great  War. 

Catarrhal  Conditions  a  Public  Evil. — The  children  who 
do  not  get  opportunities  of  free  play  and  open-air  exer- 
cise whilst  otherwise  looked  after  are  often  well  grown 
in  bulk,  but  flabby,  wanting  in  immunity  and  poorly  re- 
sistant to  disease,  frequently  flatfooted,  and  also  subject 
to  cold  hands  and  chilblains,  may  indeed  become  actively 
tuberculous,  in  spite  of  good  food,  sufficient  clothes,  and 
warmed  rootos. 

The  sum  total  of  all  these  trivial  catarrhal  diseases  in 
childhood  is  greater  in  debilitating  effect  and  physical 
deterioration  than  any  single  disease  of  early  years,  and 
yet  they  are  almost  wholly  neg'lected  as  regards  prophy- 
laxis, and  scarcely  ever  mentioned  in  medical  reports  on 
schools  or  children's  institutions.  The  existence  of  enlarged 
tonsils  or  adenoids  as  a  public  health  problem  is  in  no 
way  satisfactorily  treated  by  selecting'  large  numbers  for 
surgical  operations,  as  is  now  done  in  many  school  services. 
When  perhaps  a  quarter  of  the  childnen  in  some  schools 
present  conditions  which  indicate  severe  struggle  against 
the  factors  of  ill-health,  the  causes  hitherto  almost  un- 
touched through  school  services  must  be  sought  out  and 
remedied.  As  already  stated,  the  germs  which  cause 
catarrhs  and  all  their  subsequent  secondary  results   cause 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  '265 

perhaps  more  total  inefficiency  than  any  other  single  factor, 
and  ought  to  be  controlled  by  the  provision  of  good 
hygiene. 

Slow  improvement  has  fortunately  been  going  forward. 
The  standard  of  physique  of  the  present  generation  shows 
a  considerable  advance  as  measured  in  English  public 
schools  and  in  the  recruits  of  many  European  countries, 
and  is  probably  due  to  improved  conditions  in  infancy 
aiding  health  and  growth.  On  the  other  hand,  the  native- 
born  children  in  Australian  schools  contrast  well  with 
English -born  children  of  the  same  race  in  absence  of 
rickets,  the  product  of  industrialism,  and  in  the  healthy 
condition  of  their  permanent  teeth. 

Good  teeth  form  the  best  insurance  towards  healthy  adult 
life  ;  they  are  insisted  on  as  a  sine  qua  non  in  the  Navy. 
Healthy  birth  and  infancy,  again,  are  the  chief  cause  of 
good  teeth,  but  the  free  provision  of  regular  dental  care 
for  every  school  child  would  be  the  expenditure  for  which 
the  least  cost  would  give  the  greatest  return  in  public 
health.  The  child,  from  the  condition  of  what  Mrs, 
Leslie  Mackenzie  well  describes  as  "  the  toddler  "  going 
on  its  own  feet,  up  till  its  admission  to  school  has  at  present 
no  public  provision  for  its  care.  It  often  suffers,  as  the 
results  of  repeated  or  almost  continual  trivial  catarrhal 
attacks,  in  both  nutrition  and  growth.  Morning  vomiting 
and  fainting  from  nervous  debiUty  are  little  known  but 
quite  common  incidents  among  the  younger  elementary 
school  children.  Public  clinics  should  be  open  freely  for 
those  before  school  age  as  well  as  for  the  school  child. 
And  healthy  and  pleasant  civic  creches  should  be  provided, 
and  done  well,  free  from  all  taint  of  the  Poor  Law  or 
charity.  It  is  in  this  age  especially  that  so  much  per- 
manent or  crippling  damage  and  fatalities  so  easily  occur, 
and  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  State  that  every  one  should 
be  guarded  against  such  attacks .  There  must  be  no  .demand 
for  payments  for  such  clinic's  services.  Every  child  so 
long  as  it  is  dependent  should  be  freely  provided  for  in 
illness  or  disease  ;  only  on  such  a  basis  can  economical  and 
readily  accessible  provision  be  made  for  the  public  health. 

Public  Immunity  to  Infections. — There  is  an  immunity 
obtained  separately  for  each  infectious  disease,  in  which 
one  attack  protects  against  later  attacks.  Each  child  has 
to  acquire  from  its  mother,  or  gain  for  itself,  immunity 
against  the  ordinary  risks  of  infection.    The  majority  inherit 


266  SOCIAL    REFORM 

this  for  scarlatina,  and  less  so  for  diphtheria.  It  is 
artificially  conferred  against  smallpox  by  vaccination  ; 
most  have  to  acquire  it  by  actual  experience  of  measles 
or  whooping-cough.  These  zymotic  diseases  of  childhood 
appear  to  become  milder  with  improved  sanitation.  Catas- 
trophic attacks  either  from  measles  or  complicated  infec- 
tions, or  from  debUity  and  want  of  resistance  in  the 
individual,    seem   to   be    rarer. 

Measles  and  whooping-cough,  however,  mainly  through 
house  and  street  infection,  are  still  scourges  of  childhood, 
and  especially  dangerous  before  school  ages.  Reports  of 
medical  officers  of  health  often  repeat  the  parrot  cry  that 
"  no  one  need  have  the  measles,"  but  no  town  dweller's 
physiological  education  is  complete  without,  and  practically 
all  have  to  suffer  to  gain  the  power  of  resisting  future 
attacks.  Every  effort,  however,  should  be  made  to  post- 
pone the  attack  till  the  seventh  or  eighth  year  of  life.  The 
separation  of  the  immunizing  material  of  measles  and  its 
preparation  for  protective  use  could  probably  be  deter- 
mined in  a  twelvemonth  if  one -tenth  of  the  cost  of  a 
battleship  were  spent  on  the  inquiry,  of  greater  importance 
to  humanity  than  a  hundred  battleships. 

In  diphtheria  the  antitoxin  now  prepared,  and  useful  for 
no  other  purpose  than  protection  against  this  disease,  should 
be  freely  supplied  at  poiblic  cost  whenever  needed.  Tuber- 
culosis in  its  crippling  forms  nearly  always  appears  in  the 
first  half-dozen  years  of  life,  and  the  diseases  of  pre- 
school age  are  not  due,  as  a  rule,  to  any  individual  fault, 
but  to  general  environmental  conditions,  almost  invariably 
the  result  of  defective  social  arrangements.  Pereunt  et 
imputantur .  Disease  at  this  period  should  be  regarded 
as  a  condemnation  registered  against  the  whole  national 
efficiency.  The  good  nourishment  of  the  Jew,  with  his 
oily  diet,  carries  his  young  children  scatheless  through  many 
dangers  to  eyes,  ears,  and  skin  before  which  so  many  of 
their  Gentile  contemporaries  go  down. 

School  hygiene  is  of  great  importance  as  a  separate 
although  scarcely  developed  branch  of  public  health.  With 
entrance  to  school  the  child  comes  under  observation,  but 
the  school  medical  system  is  organized  so  that  it  does 
little  for  prophylaxis  and  concerns  itself  chiefly  with 
recording  and  ameliorating  defects  which  have  arisen. 
Definite  standards  of  mental  attainment  and  physique  should 
be  laid  dowti  for  all  who  enter  the  elementary  school,  and 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  '267 

necessarily  special  provision  made  to  level  up  if  possible 
all  who  fall  short.  The  universal  conscription  of  children 
already  suggested,  and  their  classification  according  to 
merits  and  abilities  when  called  up,  is  the  most  urgent 
problem  at  present  for  future  social  solidarity  and  the 
mental   and   physical   health   of   the  nation. 

From  such  attendance  of  every  child  in  school  would 
follow  all  the  improvements  in  environment  now  so  often 
neglected.  Again,  no  child  should  work  for  a  wage  under 
fourteen  years  of  age,  and  none  should  be  industrially 
employed  more  than  four  hours  daily  below  the  age  of 
sixteen.  Congenial  occupations  and  a  good  deal  of  tim'e 
for  the  organization  of  thought  and  mere  games  and 
slacking  is  quite  a  healthy  need  at  these  transitional  ages. 

Adolescence . — Passing  beyond  school  life  puberty  is  left 
behind,  and  here  a  considerable  change  of  interest 
develops.  Much  greater  latitude  is  required  for  personal 
expression.  Sex  is  becoming  more  urgent,  and  at  present 
remains  almost  without  provision,  except  in  hidden,  secret 
ways.  The  veil  on  things  sexual  must  be  lifted.  They 
are  the  ordinary  things  of  life,  and  there  should  be  a 
general  accessibility  and  diffusion  of  knowledge,  not  purely 
on  sex,  but  on  health,  social  wants,  and  the  avoidance  of 
disease.  This  should  be  so  common  and  so  open  that  at 
any  age  each  individual  could  pick  up  correctly  what  is 
wanted,  from  word  or  book,  without  special  effort,  mystery 
or  curiosity,  and  without  undue  stimulation  of  possibly 
morbid  feelings. 

Nature,  or  the  God  of  nature,  has  provided  a  function 
to  be  exercised,  and  added  powerful  inducements  to  this 
end.  The  mere  preaching  of  continence  to  whole  sections 
of  the  population  is  quite  futile,  and  the  assertion  of  its 
benefits  an  ostrich -like  proceeding.  It  is  known  definitely 
that  restriction  in  the  third  decennium  of  life  leads  to 
narrowed  or  selfish  interests,  a  mental  hyperaesthesia  or 
morbid  ideas  towards  sex,  hysteria,  and  frequently  nervous 
breakdown  in  neurasthenia.  The  question  of  normal 
physiological  life  must  be  faced,  and  not  shirked  in 
moralizings.  The  man  or  woman  of  twenty-five  without 
a  baby  should  be  without  a  vote.  Social  machinery  must 
provide  for  natural  processes  at  the  agfes  when  they  are 
most  effective  and  most  needed.  It  is  only  by  such  means 
that  any  real  impression  will  be  made  on  prostitution,  serious 
to  the  national  health  on  account  of  the  venereal  diseases, 


268  SOCIAL    REFORM 

of  which  it  is  the  main  source  ;    that  traffic  must  be  made 
not  worth  while. 

Venereal  Disease. — The  control  of  venereal  disease,  owing 
to  religious  and  also  social  taboo,  has  hitherto  been  shirked. 
Gonorrhoea  and  syphilis  are  the  two  diseases  of  import- 
ance ;  the  first  of  these  permanently  damages  a  consider- 
able proportion  of  women  of  every  class,  and  the  second 
is  responsible  for  an  enormous  mass  of  mental  and 
physical  degeneration,  and  premature  death,  not  only  in 
thir.  but  in  the  next  generation. 

Dr.  Kerr  Love,  of  Glasgow,  writing  of  the  i  per  cent, 
of  children  he  sees  with  syphilitic  deafness  well  illustrates 
this  point  : 

"  Every  syphilitic  deaf  child  will  lead  the  clinical  observer 
to  a  family  which  has  been  or  is  being  ruined  by  a  con- 
stitutional disease.  The  family  picture  thus  got  is  a  large 
number  of  conceptions,  a  large  proportion  of  still  births, 
a  large  percentage  of  deaths  in  the  first  two  years  of 
life,  chiefly  from  syphilitic  meningitis,  and  the  association 
with  the  deafness  of  blindness  due  to  syphilitic  disease 
of  the  eye.  Syphilis  is  thus  the  most  disastrous  disease 
among  us,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  individual  child, 
the  family,  and  as  a  consequence  the  nation.  When  it 
occurs  in  the  child  syphilis  should  be  notifiable  like  any 
other  infectious  disease,  and  the  whole  family  put  under 
treatment." 

A  table  in  Appendix  XVIII  of  the  recent  Report  of  the 
Royal  Commission  shows  that  of  4,134  German  officers 
infected  with  syphilis  there  died  523,  or  an  eighth  of 
all,  with  nervous  degeneration  in  the  way  of  general 
paralysis  of  the  insane,  locomotor  ataxy,  cerebrospinal 
syphilis  or  insanity  ;  17  died  of  the  hopeless  aortic 
aneurism  ;  147  of  tuberculosis  ;  and  10 1  of  muscular 
diseases .  Of  these  119  had  the  disease  in  their  system 
less  than  ten  years,  115  from  ten  to  twenty  years,  and  the 
others  longer  still. 

They  are  infectious  diseases,  and  should  be  treated 
exactly  as  such,  the  knowledge  for  prophylaxis  being  made 
so  common  that  every  one  can  be  protected  against  them. 
Once  the  standpoint  of  hypocrisy  is  abandoned,  the  evil 
results  of  sexual  suppression  will  be  prevented  causing 
a  mass  of  inefficiency  and  ill -health  probably  as  great  as 
that  due  to  drink  or  tubercle.  The  proposals  at  present 
being  developed  will  relieve  some  of  the  damage,  but  are 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  '269 

rather  like  locking  the  stable  door  after  the  horse  has 
gone.  It  is  prevention  of  these  diseases,  not  amelioration, 
that  is  needed. 

It  is  only  possible  here  to  indicate  by  a  few  examples 
the  general  principles  for  prophylaxis  of  disease.  The 
Insurance  Acts  represent  a  possibility  of  beginning  the 
public  discovery  of  the  existence  of  much  disabling  disease 
which  is  non -fatal  and  preventable. 

Each  age  has  its  own  risks  and  dangers.  The  early 
ages,  being  most  important,  have  been  dealt  with  rather 
fully.  The  period  between  childhood  and  the  climacteric 
has  great  vitality  and  offers  much  resistance,  if  not  to 
damaging,  at  least  to  fatal  disease. 

Tuberculosis. — The  next  cause  of  disease  and  deaths,  and 
in  the  returns  made  the  greatest  numerically,  becomes 
evident  in  early  adult  life  as  phthisis,  consumption  or  tuber- 
culosis of  the  lung's.  It  is  the  most  apparent  of  invaliding 
diseases,  and  the  chief  single  cause  of  disablement  among 
workers.  Although  as  a  fatal  disease  it  has  been  diminish- 
ing for  a  couple  of  generations,  this  is  probably  due  more 
to  what  the  politician  would  call  Free  Trade,  with  its  good 
food  and  improved  conditions  of  life,  than  to  any  direct 
attack  on  the  disease.  In  value  of  lives  and  hard  cash 
the  disease  must  cost  many  millions  annually.  A  few  years 
ago  when  £14,000,000  was  being  spent  on  poor  relief, 
it  was  estimated  that  one-eleventh  of  this  pauperism  was 
due  to  tubercle. 

The  battle  with  tubercle  has  to  be  gone  through  by 
each  one  in  the  first  decade  of  life.'  In  a  thickly  popu- 
lated community  the  keeping  up  of  a  high  average  of 
the  public  health  actually  depends  on  the  maintenance  of 
some  floating  infection  in  minimal  doses  by  the  causes 
of  disease.  Those  affected  need  never  suffer  even 
malaise,  but  they  acquire  and  maintain  the  amount  of 
immunity  need  to  prevent  epidemics.  Absurd  as  it  may 
seem,  the  diphtheritic  cat  and  the  tuberculous  cow  may  not 
be  without  some  advantage  to  the  public  health.  Tubercle 
in  England  is  ubiquitous,  and  although  practically  every 
one  is  infected  but  few  become  diseased.  Of  the  majority 
who  have  been  touched  by  tubercle  not  more  than  three 

'  Metchnikoff  found  tubercle  rare  in  the  Central  Asian  Steppes.  Of  sixteen 
young  Kalmuks  who  came  to  Astrakhan  in  191 1,  he  only  found  half  reacted  to 
tuberculin  tests,  but  of  thirty-seven  who  had  been  a  year  in  the  town  only  one 
failed  to  react. 


,27o  SOCIAL    REF.ORM 

in  a  thousand  elementary  school  children  are  found  with 
phthisis.  Searching  the  families  of  adults  suffering  from 
tubercle,  children  are  found  coming  from  such  an  environ- 
ment who  themselves  are  affected  seriously.  Only  long 
observation  can  determine  whether  the  relatively  important 
factors  of  this  graver  variety  of  the  diseasie  are  heredity, 
debilitated  physique,  or  direct  infection. 

A  calculation  showed  that  the  amount  actually  spent  in 
London  in  the  first  decennium  of  the  present  century  on 
the  education  of  those  dying  of  tubercle  before  twenty 
years  of  age  was  nearly  a  third  of  a  million  (£327,185), 
and  about  five  times  as  much  as  (£62,966)  that  spent  on 
those  who  died  of  zymotic  diseases  at  the  same  time. 

An  infected  home  is  particularly  dangerous  to  the 
children  ;  they  may  be  assumed  to  have,  if  anything,  ja 
hereditary  tendency  and  want  of  immunity,  and  even  if 
normal  they  are  almost  continually  exposed  to  risks  of 
infection  and  frequently  to  more  massive  doses  than  the 
average  risk.  The  maintenance  of  robust  health  is  neces- 
sary in  such  surroundings  if  infection  is  to  be  resisted. 
Adult  men,  from  fatigue  and  possibly  from  dust  encountered 
in  their  work,  are  the  most  liable  to  infection  ;  with  many, 
too,  the  chronic  alcoholism  associated  with  worker's  chronic 
fatigue  accentuates  the  risk,  for  the  public -house  itself  is 
a  grand  centre  of  tubercle — of  which,  indeed,  most 
publicans  die. 

When  the  breadwinner  is  affected,  as  is  so  commonly 
the  case,  the  invariable  rule  is  a  slow  sinking  of  the  family 
into  poverty.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  community  to  come 
to  the  aid  of  the  sufferers,  whether  diseased  or  in  danger 
of  disease,  as  tubercle  is  an  infection  from  other  persons 
in  the  community,  predisposed  to  by  conditions  such  as 
the  debility  of  overwork,  the  want  of  vitality  from  bad 
housing,  and  especially  the  ill-nutrition  associated  with  low 
wages  and  drink — all  conditions  largely  within  control  of 
the  community,  with  whom  mtist  rest  the  responsibility 
for  their  existence. 

This  is  a  disease  in  which  for  the  worst  cases  among 
the  poorer  classes,  who  are  most  subject  to  it,  treatment 
of  symptoms  for  a  few  months  in  a  sanatorium  is  pouring 
out  money  almost  uselessly,  and  prolonging  wasted  lives 
to  be  the  cause  of  further  misery  and  infection.  The 
tubercular  patient,  in  an  infectious  condition,  should  be 
removed  from  the  community  and  all  his  social  relations 


NATIONAL    HEALTH 


271 


fulfilled  until  he  has  ceased  to  be  a  possible  source  of 
infection  and  is  again  able  to  undertake  his  responsibilities. 
The  tubercular  child  should  be  aided  in  its  natural 
tendencies  to  recovery,  not  by  merely  home  visiting,  but  by 
a  change  of  environment.  The  chief  aid  is  nutritional, 
by  abundant  and  freely  supplied  food,  and  by  the  stimula- 


^ie-jK)-  '  -3*0'  '  '3'0'  '  '7I?' 


Phthisis  Death-rates  per  Million  Living  at  Each  Age  in  1914.     For 
Males  and  Females,  in  London  and  Rural  Districts. 


tion  of  fresh  air.  These  children  are  often  of  fine  nervous 
texture  and  likely  to  make  valuable  citizens  later.  Free- 
dom must  be  procured  from  continual  infection,  and  from 
the  care  and  worry  which  affects  even  the  children  in  a 
struggling  and  sinking  family.  A  year  or  more  in  the 
country  is   almost   necessary,   in  a  residential   convalescent 


272;  SOCIAL    REFORM 

school  or  camp.  Heredity  may  not  be  controllable  in  the 
present,  but  the  other  conditions  of  debility,  notably  the 
depressing  factors,  want  of  food,  chronic  fatigue,  alcohol, 
and  the  irritating  factor  of  dusty  work,  and  actual  infection, 
are  all  within  immediate  control  if  the  price  is  paid — and 
this  is  necessary.  The  tuberculosis  tax  must  be  met  in 
money  or  lives. 

Alcoholism. — Another  great  cause  of  inefficiency  and 
death  is  alcoholism.  When  a  custom  is  as  universal  as 
drinking  there  should  be  something  to  be  said  for  it  ;  there 
must  be  some  advantages,  but  in  the  case  of  alcohol  these 
advantages  are  outweighed  a  thousand  times  from  the  point 
of  national  health  by  its  disadvantages. 

Advance  in  knowledge  in  this  century  has  shown  the 
influence  of  hidden  emotions  existing  in  the  mind. 
Emotions  cannot  be  suppressed  or  restrained  without  find- 
ing expression  in  some  other  direction.  The  industrial 
worker  is  described  as  often  employed  for  many  hours 
daily  in  "a  constant  repetition  of  the  same  action,  un- 
relieved by  any  interest  in  the  thing  itself,  or  calling  for 
any  exercise  of  the  mind,  and  yiet  needing  unremitting 
attention  "  (p.  261).  He  has  scant  leisure  except  for  eating 
and  sleeping.  There  are  areas  of  brain  almost  unexercised, 
and  crying  out,  as  it  were,  for  function.  They  require  regular 
exercise  and  flushing  with  blood,  or  they  pass  into  an  un- 
healthy state  which  becomes  the  physical  basis  of  hysteria 
and  emotionalism.  Those  functions  which  are  least  easily 
suppressed  are  the  long  established  and  more  ancient  con- 
cerned with  the  cruder  forms  of  emotiional  expression.  With 
the  young  this  formerly  came  out  in  riotous  behaviour  and 
hooliganism.  Now  the  excitement  of  watching  a  fight  or 
a  football  match  or  the  kinema  largely  supplies  the  want. 
Betting,  gambling,  and  all  kinds  of  cheaply  obtained  but 
violent  crises  of  a  subjective  kind,  not  calling  for  further 
muscular  fatigue,  are  the  mental  emotions  demanded.  They 
are  not  evidences  of  evil  or  slackness,  but  the  physiological 
reaction  to  want  of  sufficient  mental  life.  Time  and  oppor- 
tunity, with  provision  for  varied  and  readily  accessible 
recreation,  cheaply  or  freely  provided,  are  urgent  public 
necessities.  Recreation  as  a  hygienic  necessity  has  not 
yet  been  properly  recognized  ;  its  civilizing,  humanizing, 
and  sanitary  eff^ects  appear  scarcely  appreciated.  Alcoholism 
through  paralysing  emotions  gives  considerable  relief  and 
satisfies  temporarily  the  want  of  mental  life.     It  could  be 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  273 

replaced  by  supplying  this  in  a  way  far  better  by  com- 
petitive games,  or  conditions  in  which  constant  improve- 
ment can  be  attempted — e.g.  marksmanship,  and  where 
self-respect  and  contented  minds  are  developed  to  the  gain 
of  both  the   individual   and   society. 

Another  cause  of  chronic  drinking  is  due  to  its 
anaesthetic  effects  on  the  tired  worker.  It  gives  relief  from 
chronic  fatigue,  and  he  misinterprets  this  as  added  strength, 
so  that  laborious  workers   are  usually  chronic  drinkers. 

The  manual  worker,  too,  often  travels  long  distances  on 
foot,  and  passes  non-working  intervals  in  a  condition  of 
irritable  fatigue  in  which  sensible  recreation  is  almost 
impossible,  and  from  which  respite  is  only  felt  during 
sleep,  or  by  temporary  stimulation  with  alcohol. 

The  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  individual  may  be  roughly 
classed  as  those  due  to  excessive  and  those  to  chronic 
drinking. 

An  occasional  indulgence  in  alcoholic  drinks,  even 
to  drunken  excess,  does  not  necessarily  involve  serious 
changes  leading  to  Ul -health  or  disease.  The  habitual 
and  frequent  use  of  such  drinks  as  a  means  of  stimulation 
during  working  hours,  although  actual  drunkenness  may 
never  be  approached,  leads,  however,  to  serious  nervous 
and  digestive  changes,  with  all  the  secondary  results  which 
make  up  the  picture  of  the  chronic  alcoholic. 

The  lack  of  control  leads  to  much  crime.  The  majority 
of  homicides  are  alcoholic.  It  is  the  cause  of  many  suicides 
and  a  large  proportion  of  sexual  crimes.  Its  disastrous 
physical  effects  show  in  returns  of  recurrent  illnesses  from 
bronchitis,  gastric  and  hepatic  troubles,  and  in  deaths  from 
cardiac  failure,  circulatory  disorders,  apoplexy  and  soften- 
ing" of  the  brain.  The  alcoholic,  too,  suffers  from 
diminishing  powers  of  resistance  in  the  second  half  of 
life,  so  that  death  may  come  quickly  from  bacterial  invasion 
by  pneumonia,  carbuncle  or  septic  poisoning,  or  less  quickly 
from  tuberculosis. 

Drink,  then,  is  largely  the  result  on  one  hand  of 
emotionally  drab  Uves,  wanting  in  opportunity  for  exercise 
and  recreation,  or  on  the  other  of  chronic  feelings  of 
exhaustion   from   monotonous   work   for  long  periods. 

The  effects  of  drink  on  national  efficiency  during  the 
war,  the  way  its  provision  has  used  up  valuable  materials, 
choked  transport  and  freightage,  and  demanded  the  energies 
of  thousands  of  workers,  have  shown  that  tjiere  is:  here  another 

18 


274  SOCIAL    REFORM 

example  of  need  for  communal  action.  The  prevention  of 
such  a  leakage  ought  not  to  await  the  overthrow  of  tire 
Prussian.  Restricted  opportunities  for  drinking  have  been 
demonstrated  advantageous.  The  trade  should  be  curtailed 
and  managed  by  the  State  so  that  it  would  not  be  to  any 
one's  advantage  to  make  potable  alcohol,  and  none  should 
push  the  sale  or  encourage  any  individual  use  of  drink. 
The  benefits  of  such  a  course  pf  action  to  the  public  health 
would  be  indescribably  great. 

Apart  from  drink,  there  are  many  occupations  which  in 
themselves  entail  high  mortality.  The  Cornish  miner,  for 
instance,  who  goes  out  to  the  Transvaal  is  soon  used  up, 
and  generally  comes  home  to  die  of  miner's  phthisis.  All 
stone  dusty  workers  run  risks  of  lung  disease.  Dr.  Barwise 
thinks  the  siliceous  deposits  of  Derbyshire  could  be  mapped 
out  by  the  prevalence  of  fibroid  phthisis  in  various  districts 
there.  Till  recent  years  matchmakers  and  phosphorus 
workers  were  much  affected  by  the  yellow  phosphorus 
allowed  in  their  trades.  Alkali  workers,  workers  in  arsenic, 
antimony,  mercury,  and  still,  too,  lead  workers,  frequently 
suffer  in  health. 

Strangely,  in  these  dangerous  trades  people  often  work 
very  long  hours  for  miserable  wages,  and  in  this  respect 
are  truly  sweated.  Their  working  hours  should  be  much 
shortened  and  their  wages  correspondingly  raised  to  meet 
the  sacrifice  in  health  and  years  of  life  risked  ;  by 
restricting  such  employment  much  damage  might  be 
prevented.  Such  points  the  managlers  of  the  National 
Health  Insurance  will  have  to  take  into  close  considera- 
tion, as  they  now  not  only  affect  individual  health,  but 
also  the  national  finance.  The  life  tables  quoted  earlier 
leave  no  doubt  that  the  majority  of  workers  have  lives 
prematurely  shortened  for  others'  gain.  The  rules  of  many 
Trade  Unions  restricting  output  are  framed  in  self-defence, 
but  they  are  inadequate  as  sanitary  measures  in  that,  whilst 
they  shorten  output,  they  do  not  increase  the  amenities  of 
life  by  securing  further  opportunities  for  leisure,  rest,  and 
recreation . 

The  workers  who  themselves  own  the  famous  Zeiss 
optical  factories  in  Jena  determined  experimentally  years 
ago  that  they  could  not  turn  out  an  equally  good  amount  of 
work  if  employed  more  than  eight  hours  daily,  and  before 
the  war  a  rule  was  in  force  that  no  one  should  be  on  the 
premises  more  than  eight  hours  out  of  twenty-four. 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  275 

The  improvement  should  come  in  shortened  hours,  not 
in  shortened  output.  An  eight-hours'  day  when  adopted 
could  by  improved  working  and  the  study  of  efficiency 
methods  be  reduced  in  time  probably  to  six  hours  daily, 
without  reducing  the  work  done  or  wages  paid,  and  the 
time  gained  would  really  be  added  to  the  healthy  life  of 
the  workers  who  had  earned  it.  No  social  means  of  im- 
proving the  public  health  can  afford  to  neglect  a  con- 
siderable proportion,  probably  a  tenth,  of  the  population 
who  are  below  the  intellectual  plane  necessary  for  whole- 
some life  under  civilized  conditions,  and  they  are  only 
sustained  at  the  expense  of  their  fellows.  This  parasitic 
section  under  the  protected  conditions  existing  is  recruiting 
itself  at  a  greater  rate  than  the  normal  population.  Drastic 
regulation  to  prevent  such  procreation  is  the  only  remedy, 
and  can  be  obtained  by  collective  action,  but  much 
education  as  to  existing  and  prospective  facts  is  necessary. 

Suppressed  Information  in  Returns. — When  mortality 
returns  are  examined  certain  diseases  make  themselves 
evident — e.g.  infantile  diarrhoea,  rickets,  tuberculosis  ; 
whilst  others,  such  as  syphilis  or  alcoholism,  are  only 
to  be  deduced  indirectly  from  the  prevalence  of  their  effects, 
as  shown  above  in  the  list  of  officers'  deaths  from 
syphilis,  :       !      i 

Certification  of  death  in  each  case  should  be  in  dupli- 
cate, one  certificate  being  made  out  for  the  relatives,  useful 
for  all  civU  purpwDses,  and  the  other  confidential  and  officially 
registered  by  the  medical  attendant  solely  in  the  interests 
of  national  health.  No  one  who  has  not  acted  in  private 
practice,  or  who  has  not  had  to  handle  mortality  returns, 
can  appreciate  the  enormous  importance  of  such  a  change 
as  this,  if  truly  valuable  evidence  is  not  to  be  continually 
suppressed.  It  is,  however,  not  only  the  private  prac- 
titioner who  has  to  be  protected  ;  the  official  often  has  not 
the  liberty  to  report  fully  and  completely  without  bias,  lest 
he  should  give  offence.  The  medical  officer  of  health, 
as  a  rule,  is  worse  paid  than  other  corresponding  officials. 
He  has  to  conform  to  many  restraints  on  his  professional 
work,  and  time  after  time  may  see  the  fruits  of  his  labours 
modified  by  others,  who  fail  to  appreciate  its  drift  or 
value.  The  routine  in  which  he  is  plunged  comparatively 
early  in  life  restricts  and  narrows  his  views.  There  is, 
therefore,  all  the  more  reason  that  attempt  should  be  made 
to    secure   able    workers   by   raising   the   standard   through 


276  SOCIAL    REFORM 

security  of  tenure,  and  continuity  of  official  life  in  any 
transfers  or  promotions  which  may  occur  from  time  to 
time.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  idea  of  the  medical 
officer  of  health  as  a  kind  of  professional  Uebermensch, 
now  being  exploited  in  certain  circles,  could  be  otherwise 
than  repugnant  to  those  with  actual  clinical  experience  of 
medical  practice,  in  which  the  mental  factor  plays  so  great 
a  part.  Beyond  officials  themselves  this  idea  of  a  general 
State  service  of  medicine  finds  little  professional  support. 
The  medical  officer  of  health  developed  his  field  when 
public  health  was  general  and  impersonal.  Now  that  it 
is  becoming  individual  and  personal  the  treating  doctor 
alone  must  take  the  whole  responsibility,  and  not  be  tied 
down  in  practising  his  art  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  The 
medical  officer  of  health  rarely  has  either  the  knowledge 
or  experience  of  other  than  his  own  narrow  field.  And 
this  general  State  service,  if  ever  introduced,  would  have 
a  sterilizing  and  deadening  effect,  in  which  schedules  would 
soon  be  likely  to  be  more  thought  of  than  patients.  The 
true  function  of  a  State  Department  in  science  or  medicine 
is  to  collate  knowledge  and  distribute  advice .  Where  more 
than  this  has  been  done  the  attempt  to  definitely  regulate 
details  of  medical  work  has  usually  crystallized  it,  and 
slowed  down  or  arrested  progress,  or,  as  the  electrician 
would  say,  reduced  the  whole  to  a  low  potential.  Exist- 
ing services  inspire  little  confidence,  or  may  even  serve 
as  warnings  rather  than  models  for  future  administrators. 
Their  methods  if  widely  extended  would  probably  seriously 
harm  rather  than  improve  national  health. 

Conclusion. — The  burden  of  this  chapter  is  that  there 
yet  remains  great  possibilities  of  improved  national  health, 
and  actual  gain  in  years  and  happiness  to  almost  every 
individual  among  us,  if  the  conditions  are  squarely  faced 
and  dealt  with  on  an  honest  and  just  basis. 

Much  effort  at  present  is  a  tinkering  with  superficial 
symptoms,  whilst  the  deeply  placed  basal  causes  require 
wide  social  adjustments.  For  example,  there  is  the 
**  recruitment  of  man  power  " — more  births  are  needed, 
hence  no  mother  must  be  penalized  in  any  way  who  con- 
tributes a  citizen  to  the  country.  All  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  maternity  must  be  removed.  In  this  regard  the 
woman  with  a  child  is  always  to  be  respected,  and 
the  chief  national  concern  is  healthy  maternity  and  good 
nursing  ;    for  the  health  and  weight  of  the  baby  in  its 


NATIONAL    HEALTH  '277 

earliest  years  is  the  all -important  object  towards  which 
every  other  concern  here  is  subsidiary. 

The  conscription  of  children  is  necessary  to  secure  a 
minimum  of  good  treatment  for  all.  It  is  a  sound  basis, 
and  experience  suggests  the  only  basis,  for  a  high  standard 
ultimately  in  both  education  and  national  health. 

Early  adult  life  requires  provision  for,  not  suppression 
of,  its  needs.  The  religious  and  social  taboos  must  be 
influenced  and  put  to  one  side,  as  they  tend  to  drive  sexual 
life  underground  in  early  adult  hfe,  and  are  the  main 
causes  sustaining  prostitution  and  its  dissemination  of 
venereal  disease. 

Tuberculosis  in  its  pulmonary  form,  essentially  the 
disease  of  the  worker,  requires  the  patient  to  be  relieved 
and  sustained,  his  family  responsibilities  being  wholly 
undertaken  until   he   can    resume   them    without    danger. 

Drink,  which  will  be  sought  as  long  as  the  present  indus- 
trial conditions  exist,  must  be  so  controlled  by  the  State 
that  it  will  be  to  no  man's  interest  to  make  another  drink. 

The  main  causes  of  these  failures  in  national  health  is 
the  employment  of  individuals  as  hands  without  due  regard 
to  other  emotional  and  mental  needs,  which  results  in  long 
working  hours,  without  sufficient  time  for  varied  exercise, 
recreation,  and  sleep. 

Bad  housing  arrangements,  the  enclosure  of  lands,  game 
laws,  deprivation  of  the  amenities  of  life,  are  all  contributing 
to  the  wearing  out  of  the  average  English  citizen,  whose 
prospects  of  life  in  middle  age  are  less  than  that  of  those 
of  other  countries,  or  indeed  of  his  immediate  forerunners. 

Lastly,  it  is  self-evident  that  all  services  and  commodi- 
ties necessary  for  public  health  should  be  completely 
controlled  by  the  community  in  its  own  interests  and  for 
the  benefit  of  all  its  members. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

The  Care  of  Child  Life 

By  MARGARET   McMILLAN 

A  GREAT  many  schemes  for  helping  the  children  of  this 
country  now  and  after  the  war  are  already  afoot.  Some  of 
these  may  have  the  germs  of  great  constructive  work  that 
will  go  far  to  redeem  and  exalt  our  nation  out  of  nearly  all 
its  present-day  child  misery.  The  part  that  must  be  played 
by  the  elementary  schools  and  nursery  schools  has  not  yet 
been  well  defined,  but  it  is  clear  that  these  may  be  prime 
agents  in  bringing  about  hitherto  undreamed-of  results. 
I  venture,  therefore,  to  make  the  following  observations  and 
proposals,  all  of  which  are  inspired,  not  in  leisured  calm, 
but  in  the  field  of  actual  daily  work  among  children. 

To  begin,  then,  we  are  to  deal  not  with  a  section  of  all 
the  children  in  the  nation,  but  with  the  child  nation  itself. 
There  will  have  to  be  a  good  deal  of  classifying  done  by 
and  by,  but  for  all  that,  in  our  aims  and  work  we  must 
think  of  our  seven  or  eight  millions  of  children,  of  their 
conditions  of  life,  and  life  as  a  whole,  and,  gathering  up  the 
varied  factors  that  go  to  make  up  the  nurture  and  lot  of 
the  vast  majority,  think  and  work  out  schemes  that  will  meet 
their  needs.  In  short,  we  must  differentiate,  but  not  at 
the  outset  of  our  survey. 

It  appears  that  for  the  majority  of  children  some  degree 

of  medical  help  and  oversight  is  needed  from  the  beginning. 

The  oft -repeated  statement  that  nearly  all  children  are  born 

healthy  needs,  perhaps,  a  little  revision.     In  one  nursery  or 

baby  camp,  87  babies  under  three  years  old,  and  70  under 

eighteen  months  old,  were  admitted  in  one  year.     Of  these, 

only    six   children    were    in    a   satisfactory    state   of   health. 

Twenty-two   suffered  from   two   distinct   ailments,   and   nine 

from    three.       Practically    aU    the    children    suffered    from 

378 


THE    CARE    OF.    CHILD    LIFE  %*j^ 

"  debility."  Tonsilitis,  rickets,  rhinitis,  dental  caries,  and 
bronchitis  were  common.  "It  is  a  hospital  !  "  cried  the 
matron.  No,  it  was  not  a  hospital  ;  it  was  and  is  a  niu-sery, 
and  its  aims  are  preventive  and  educational.  But  it  is  well 
to  know  from  the  outset  that  for  the  first  decade  at  least  a 
great  proportion  of  all  the  children  in  the  coimtry  must  be 
under  medical  care.  One  cannot  neglect  preventive  work, 
as  we  have  done  in  the  past,  and  expect  to  escape  from  the 
need  of  wholesale  hospital  methods.  In  any  case,  it  seems 
likely  that  for  one  or  two  decades  our  national  system  of 
primary  education  and  child -care  must  be  a  combination 
of  clinic  and  school  method.  Side  by  side  with  medical 
works  we  have  to  develop  preventive  work  as  an  integral 
part  of  our  whole  system  of  education  and  home  training. 
To  indicate  how  this  may  be  done  is  the  aim  of  this 
chapter. 

Keeping  in  view,  then,  the  need  for  curative  work,  and 
also  for  preventive  work,  we  have  to  bring  into  being 
agencies  that  will  give  effective  help  to  mothers  and  young 
children  up  to  and  under  the  age  of  seven  (for  we  have 
it  as  part  of  our  programme  that  the  age  of  entrance 
into  primary  schools  will  be  raised  to  seven).  A  great  fact 
meets  us  on  the  threshold  of  the  inquiry.  We  cannot 
separate  mother  and  child  in  the  first  two  years  of  life, 
pre-natal  and  infant,  without  risk  and  injury  to  one  or  both. 
Too  often  schemes  for  dealing  with  mothers  leave  out  of 
account  her  higher  nature,  her  possible  dreams,  hopes, 
aspirations,  and  ambitions  in  prospect  of  motherhood,  and 
fasten  themselves  merely  on  her  physical  needs.  The 
English  mother  does  not,  perhaps,  dream  as  did  the  Jewess 
of  giving  birth  to  a  World  Saviour.  But  has  she  no  dreams  ? 
The  public -house,  the  hoardings,  the  places  of  amusement 
near  mean  streets,  the  small,  dark,  bathless  house,  the  rate  of 
wages — all  these  things  have  to  be  thought  of  in  relation  to 
the  women  whose  impressions  and  daily  inner  life  make  up 
the  warp  and  woof  of  to-morrow's  thinkers  and  doers.  And 
one  of  the  functions  of  the  nurseries  we  hope  to  see  brought 
into  existence  will  be  the  opening  up  of  new  sources  of 
help,  inspiration,  and  sympathy  for  the  expectant  and  nursing 
mother,  so  often  confined  now  within  the  depressing  walls 
of  a  very   poor  home. 

For  children  over  a  twelvemonth  old  nurseries  are 
needed,  and  for  exactly  the  same  reason  that  they  are  wanted 
in  the  homes  of  the  weU-to-do.     A  toddler  cannot  be  kept 


28o  SOCIAL    REFORM 

'*  good  "  in  a  chair  or  in  a  little  room  crowded  with  furni- 
ture. He  learns  by  moving,  touching,  and  exercising  his 
lungs  and  larynx.  He  is  a  great  trouble  to  a  busy  or 
languid  mother,  and  even  in  the  homes  of  the  rich  it  is 
found  necessary  to  give  him  a  room  and  a  playing  space 
for  his  own  use.  From  the  poor  and  crowded  home  he 
escapes  of  course  when  he  can.  He  makes  his  way  into  the 
street,  where  we  now  see  him  in  thousands,  exposed  to 
every  kind  of  danger,  and  determined  to  run  every  possible 
risk.  Walk  down  the  by -lanes,  or  even  the  main  thorough- 
fare, of  a  poor  city  area,  and  you  will  see  the  children 
literally  as  warm.  A  hundred  dusty,  golden  heads  tumbling 
through  the  doorways,  and  tiny  hands  and  limbs  on  the 
pavement  and  in  the  gutter.  It  is  a  dreadful  sight,  and  a 
very  shameful  one  !  To  see  good  com  trampled  under  the 
feet  of  careless  hogs  or  straying  cattle  would  be  sad.  But 
what  is  that  to  the  spectacle  we  see  at  nearly  every  street 
corner  of  wasted,  neglected,  and   exposed  childhood? 

There  is  no  reason  why  this  spectacle  should  disgrace  our 
streets  after  the  war.  For  already  the  work  of  bringing 
all  children  imder  school  age  within  the  scope  of  a  scheme 
of  nurture  and  education  is  begun  and  must  continue  to 
develop.  The  Board  of  Education  has  taken  one  great  step 
towards  the  salvation  of  young  children  in  giving  what  is 
now  known  as  the  fourpenny  grant.  This  is  a  grant  of 
4d.  a  day  made  towards  the  upkeep  of  nurseries  or  creches 
that  will  undertake  the  proper  care  of  children  up  to  five 
years  old.  For  three  years  it  has  paid  this  grant,  and  in 
doing  so  has  shifted  the  responsibility  for  wasted  child -hfe 
to  women's  shoulders.  The  State  cannot  do  everything 
well,  though  it  can  help  to  an  almost  unlimited  degree  in 
getting  things  well  done.  Cheered  by  its  financial  help  and 
by  the  knowledge  that  the  educational  system  of  our  country 
no  longer  ignores  the  yoimgest  and  most  helpless  children, 
the  women  of  England  can  now,  if  they  will  it,  establish  such 
nursery -schools  on  lines  that  will  allow  them  to  have  a  good 
influence,  not  merely  on  babies,  but  on  all  neighbourhoods. 

Baby  camps  or  nurseries  should  be  opened  if  possible 
very  near  to  a  school  clinic.  If  this  is  done  it  will  not  be 
necessary  to  have  a  hospital  nurse  (though  it  may  be 
desirable)  and  more  stress  may  be  laid  on  the  health -nursing) 
qualifications  of  the  matron.  A  small  house  (with  one  large 
room  for  a  reception  room)  may  be  all  that  is  wanted,  pro- 
vided there  is  a  large  garden  or  open  space  behind  it.     It 


THE    CARE    OF,    CHILD    LIFE  2E1 

is  quite  astonishing  to  see  how,  in  the  most  crow'ded  parts  of 
the  south-eastern  districts  of  London,  these  gardens  and 
open  spaces  do  exist  behind  the  narrow  streets.  Further- 
more, there  are  open  spaces  and  waste  lands  even  in  dense 
and  dark  areas  enough  to  change  the  whole  character  and 
appearance  of  many  districts.  It  is  surely  time  to  explore 
these,  and  to  see  how  and  where  they  can  be  used  to  good 
purpose. 

Behind  the  house  and  in  the  garden  there  must  be  roomy 
shelters  for  wet  and  cold  days.  These  shelters  do  not  cost 
much.  After  the  war  there  should  be  thousands  of  willing 
hands  ready  to  build  them.  Airy,  spacious,  and  sunny,  open 
on  all  sides,  and  with  a  terrace  and  garden  in  front,  they 
make  a  new  world  for  many  children.  If  the  nation  thus 
invested,  let  us  say,  two  million  pounds,  we  could  bring  con- 
siderably more  than  half  a  million  children  into  the  open, 
furnishing  them  not  only  with  garden  groimd  and  shelters, 
but  receiving  houses  as  well.  This  estimate  is  made  from 
actual  experience  of  a  very  difficult  kind  of  camp  in  a  very 
crowded  district  and  in  war  time.  In  view  of  the  great 
amount  of  outdoor  building  that  wiU  be  left  on  the  Govern- 
ment's hands  after  the  war,  however,  we  could  put  up  the 
shelters  for  a  much  smaller  sum,  and  thus,  for  the  first  time 
in  England's  history  begin  to  take  aU  her  children  out  of 
the  gutter. 

This  appears  to  me  the  first  and  the  only  thing  to  do  as 
a  step  towards  everything  else  that  can  follow.  Doles, 
visiting,  notifications  (necessary  as  these  are),  registrations, 
and  even  improved  housing,  are  dead  letters  so  long  as  the 
children  are  in  the  gutter.  Even  school  clinics,  so  necessary 
and  with  their  great  field  of  work  always  proving  now  even 
to  the  least  sympathetic  their  social  value — even  these  have 
a  hmited  function,  and  depend  for  their  usefulness  on  the 
existence  of  some  kind  of  wholesome  life  within  the  reach 
of  all  young  children.  This  kind  of  life  is  not  within  the 
reach  of  millions  to-day,  and  that  is  why  we  are  spending 
money  vainly.  One  illustration  only  I  will  give  of  this 
wastage.  At  Deptford  clinic  within  three  months,  over  nine 
hundred  children  were  treated  for  diseases  that  are  unknown 
among  the  well-to-do,  and  that  are  unknown  also,  I  .may  add, 
in  our  camps.  Nearly  all  those  children  were  back  within 
eleven  weeks  with  the  same  or  like  disease.  They  had  to 
be  treated  again  (with  an  expensive  drug)  and  to  return  once 
more  to  the  old  life  and  the  old  seats  of  infection  !     Surely 


282  SOCIAL    REFORM 

such  treatment  as  this  has  no  real  "aim."  Four  thousand 
large  camp  nurseries  starred  all  over  our  big  city  areas 
would  go  far  to  stamp  out  the  very  names  of  those  plagues 
of  early  twentieth -century  childhood. 

The  indoor  nurseries  are  doubtless  doing  a  great  work  ; 
but  I  think  they  will  all  have  to  become  more  or  less 
outdoor  places  in  time.  Not  that  a  garden  makes  a  camp. 
As  well  claim  that  a  flower -pot  makes  a  forest.  The  camp 
life  has  its  own  way  of  building,  making,  playing,  teaching, 
and  learning.  It  is  a  new  life — not  a  chance  experience  for 
fair  weather — and  it  offers  a  door  of  escape  from  many 
problems  as  well  as  from  many  diseases.  Life  is  difficult 
in  rooms.  It  is  much  harder  to  bring  different  orders  ,of 
child  or  adult  together  within  four  walls,  as  witness  the  many 
rules  of  institutions.  But  in  the  spacious,  open  pavilion 
through  which  the  air  moves  freely,  and  on  whose  floor 
dance  the  leaf  shadows  of  waving  trees,  life  is  easier. 

Take,  for  example,  the  matter  of  infectious  disease. 
There  must,  of  course,  be  exclusions  from  the  open-air 
nursery.  The  matron,  even  if  medically  qualified,  should 
if  possible  have  the  help  of  a  doctor  always  at  hand, 
so  as  to  exclude  and  isolate  if  necessary,  not  only  for 
measles,  chicken-pox,  and  other  child  illnesses.  For 
dirt  and  other  even  more  deadly  infection  cases  she  has 
to  be  on  the  alert  always.  Yet  work  in  the  open  is  far 
less  difficult  than  the  work  of  an  indoor  matron.  She  can 
have  isolation  places  in  the  open,  as  well  as  an  indoor 
refuge  in  time  of  need.  Only  a  few  times  in  a  year  do  we 
ever  use  the  indoor  room  for  children  who  are  iU.  An,d 
as  during  the  first  decade  after  the  war  such  a  large 
number  of  "  medical  "  cases  wiU  have  to  be  handled,  it 
is  surely  a  great  thing  to  know  that  ground  space,  not 
building  space,  will  hmit  our  activities. 

An  outdoor  nursery  of  from  sixty  to  seventy  children 
should  have  a  matron,  a  head  and  an  under  nurse,  and  two 
probationers.  If  children  over  five  are  admitted  there  should 
be  a  kindergarten  teacher  as  well.  Two  probationers  are 
needed.  At  least  one  of  the  two  nurses  should  have  some  train- 
ing in  the  mental  side  of  toddlers  and  infant  life.  The  same 
kind  of  knowledge  should,  of  course,  be  won  by  the  matron. 
But  where  are  the  schools  that  give  this  particular  kind  of 
training  ?  In  so  far  as  I  know  they  do  not  yet  exist  ;  and  one 
of  our  first  duties  is  to  bring  them  into  existence,  and  mean- 
while to  make  even  our  nursing  school  a  kind  of  training 


THE    CARE    OF,    CHILD    LIFE  283 

school  of  a  more  or  less  comprehensive  kind.  It  is  sad  to 
note  how  many  nurses  will  wash,  comb,  feed,  and  "  mind  "  a 
child,  without,  as  it  seems,  ever  remembering  that  he  is 
a  struggling  little  intelligence  sadly  in  need  of  help  ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  our  schools  have  turned  out  many  teachers 
whose  training  stops  short  at  every  kind  of  physiological 
problem  of  a  workaday  kind,  and  who  do  not  "  have  any- 
thing to  do  "  with  bodies,  but  only  with  the  teaching  of 
subjects. 

A  teacher  in  the  open  should  be  able  to  look  at  every 
new  problem  from  a  wider  standpoint.     In  order  to  illustrate 

this  let  me  give  one  or  two  examples.      L enters  our 

school  in  a  very  sad  condition.  She  is  two  years  old,  but 
can  hardly  stand.  She  has  been  minded  by  an  old  v/oman 
who  kept  her  in  a  chair  drawn  tightly  up  to  a  table.  Her 
wrists  are  so  weak  that  she  cannot  hold,  still  less  pick  up 
anything.  One  leg  is  twisted.  She  suffers  from  rhinitis, 
and  her  mouth  is  always  open.  Yet  this  child  is  eager  to 
live  and  to  enjoy. 

A  nurse  can  do  more  than  feed,  wash,  and  tend  L . 

She  can,  without  great  trouble,  help  her  to  use  her  limbs, 
to  crawl,  stand,  walk,  and  climb.  She  can  lead  her  out 
among  the  tall  flowers,  and  give  her  long-denied  nervous 
system  the  delicious  shock  of  a  new  joy.  With  a  little  help 
and  encouragement  those  limp  hands  wiU  pull  out  a  weed, 

lift   a    branch    or    stone,    and   put    on    L 's    coat.      And 

those  long  silent  lips,  that  already  make  new  noises  in  the 
garden,  may  be  trained  to  speak. 

How  much  help  is  needed  by  the  one  and  two  years  old 
one  realizes  only  after  watching  them  long  and  carefully 
in  a  garden.  To-day  the  soft  September  light  shines  down 
on  our  camp  and  down  the  paths,  and  in  the  herb-garden 
are  the  tiny  blue-and-pink  pinafored  creatures.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  distress  amongst  these  and  some  boredom, 
because,  owing  to  the  absence  of  a  nurse -teacher,  they  are 
alone.  Here  is  Sam,  who  is  tired  of  running  and  has  ex- 
hausted the  resources  of  the  cabbage  patch.  If  she  was 
here  he  would  do  a  great  many  things.  Bring  a  flower,  for 
example,  and  match  it  with  another,  tell  its  colour  and  even 
enter  on  the  (to  him)  formidable  task  of  naming  it.  He  is 
learning  to  speak  now,  and  makes  good  progress.  Left  to 
himself  he  would  fall  behind.  He  is  a  little  backward,  as 
most  of  our  children  are,  solely  by  reason  of  being  more  or 
less  abandoned. 


284  SOCIAL    REFORM 

Here  is  an  older  group  of  three-  and  four -year -olds.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  they  should  be  alone  sometimes. 
Reverie  is  as  necessary  and  natural  to  them  as  sleep.  But 
they  must  waken  more  fully  at  times.  They  are  often  eager 
to  listen  as  well  as  to  talk,  to  look  with  another  at  pictures, 
to  watch  the  green  flies  and  bees,  and  to  name  things. 
They  want  a  big  friend  who  knows  about  caterpillars.  With- 
out her  they  will  tear  flowers  and  hurt  the  creatures  they 
find,  but  hardly  get  to  love  them.  In  the  herb -garden  it 
is  the  same  old  story.  Some  one  must  go  round  at  first  to 
pinch  with  them  the  odorous  leaves,  to  lift  them  where  they 
can  stand  up  to  the  knees  in  mignonette,  and  to  name  the 
wonders  of  the  new  world. 

It  may  seem  trivial  to  the  pre-war  thinkers  that  we  should 
write  of  the  value  of  weed-puUing  for  toddlers,  of  mug- 
washing  and  knot -tying,  of  handkerchief  drills  and  tooth- 
brush drills,  of  talks  and  pictures  and  the  naming  of  things, 
of  lip  drill  and  singing,  and  the  pinching  of  odorous 
herbs  in  the  herb -garden,  of  the  putting  on  and  off  of 
fids,  the  mere  tearing  up  of  things,  the  guessing  games 
with  velvet,  silk,  and  calico  balls,  and  all  that  love  can 
imagine  of  companionship  for  a  young  and  groping  inteUi- 
gence.  But  what  are  we  trying  to  get  but  help  for  young 
intelligences.  And  never  have  I  seen  so  much  distress  and 
waste  of  opportimity  for  lack  of  all  this  as  among  the 
toddlers  of  the  baby  camp  ! 

Then  we  need  joy  in  the  camp,  and  seeing  the  distress 
and  arrest  that  the  want  of  all  this  help  brings  I  think  it  no 
shame  to  write  of  it  in  some  detail.  I  think  it  necessary, 
too,  that  nurses  should  speak  good  English  and  also  that 
they  should  sing.  Why  should  we  have  lullabies  in  every 
language  yet  never  mention  singing  in  connection  with 
public  creches  ?  In  the  open  air,  under  the  trees  and  among 
sweet  herbs  and  blowing  flowers,  surely  we  should  hear 
singing?  And  we  shall  hear  it  I  For  though  children  are 
easily  silenced  in  a  house,  they  mil  sing  in  the  open.  The 
only  question  is  whether  we  can  banish  the  vulgar  street 
song  with  something  better  ! 

A  word  now  as  to  the  probationers.  If  possible,  these 
should  be  girls  trained  in  a  camp  school,  and  with  the  love 
of  the  open  in  their  veins.  These,  even  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  show  far  more  initiative  and  resource  than  the 
ordinary  schoolgirl  or  even  the  ordinary  yoimg  nurse.  They 
have  shed  all  kinds  of  obscm-e  fears  and  weaknesses,  bred 


THE    CARE    OF    CHILD    LIFE  285 

of  a  close,  indoor  life,  and  have  a  far  better  command  of 
themselves  and  their  own  powers.  All  this  is  not  a  matter 
of  opinion.  It  is  a  fact  proven  and  re-proven  in  the  storm 
and  stress  of  daily  work. 

Unfortunately  there  are  very  few  camp  schools  to-day. 
And  this  brings  me  to  the  second  part  of  the  chapter. 

The  pre-war  type  of  elementary  school  has  broken  down. 
It  is  forty-six  years  old  and  was  knowh  for  at  least  thirty 
years  to  be  even  at  its  best  (and  its  best  is  wonderfully 
good)  too  sadly  handicapped  to  offer  a  solution.  The 
business  man  found  it  out  very  soon  ;  the  profeissional 
classes  helped  to  pay  for  it  while  shrug^ging  their  shoulders  ; 
and  the  working-class  parent  had  serious  doubt.  But  now 
this  failure  is  not  merely  openly  proved,  it  is  freely 
acknowledged.  The  wtork  of  the  School  Clinic  has  set 
all  the  misery  and  suffering  of  children  in  a  blazing  light, 
and  given  us  facts  (such  as  I  have  given  above)  that  close 
the  lips  of  its  boldest  friends. 

Six  years  ago  I  opened  a  school  for  children  of  normal 
type  who  for  one  reason  or  another  had  come  to  the  clinic 
suffering  from  weakness,  anaemia,  languor,  and  a  general 
failure  of  vitality  and  power  to  carry  on  any  more. 
Among  these  were  scholarship  children,  and  others  besides 
these  were  probably  bright  and  even  gifted.  Some  were 
backward.  Nearly  all  spoke  English  very  badly,  and  had 
little  or  no  initiative  of  any  kind  in  work  or  in  play.  Nearly 
all  had  more  or  less  serious  nervous  troubles,  and  few,  if  any, 
would  ever  (as  things  were)  win  through  to  any  kind  of 
successful  manhood  or  womanhood. 

It  was  clear,  almost  from  the  first,  that  all  this  falling 
away  was  the  result  of  something  that  was  wrong,  not  in  the 
school,  however,  but  in  the  home,  and  of  things  that  hap- 
pened not  in  the  day  but  in  the  night.  "  Ah,"  the  pre-war 
critic,  "then  it  was  not  the  school's  failing,  after  all  !  "  To 
this  we  answer:  "What  is  the  function  of  a  school?  Is  it 
to  work  under  any  kind  of  circumstances  and  with  no  eye 
to  its  tools?  "  Yet  the  pre-war  school  did  this,  and  that  is 
why  it  failed. 

We  began  by  making  our  school  a  real  night  school. 
The  children  slept  out  summer  and  winter.  A  very  few 
slept  out  even  at  the  week-ends,  but  most  went  home  on 
Saturday  nights.  The  schools  were  close  to  their  homes  ; 
indeed,  it  was  a  kind  of  quadrangle  with  the  back  windows 


286  SOCIAL    REFORM 

of  homes  ranged  down  two  sides,  and  our  aim  was  to 
make  it  as  far  as  possible  an  extension  of  the  home  sleeping- 
rooms  and  backyards.  Every  boy  (and  every  girl,  for 
we  had  a  girl  camp)  had  his  own  towel,  night  clothes, 
tooth  and  nail  brushes,  etc.,  and  locker,  and  every  one  had 
a  hot  bath  and  cold  shower  daily  as  part  of  his  treatment. 
In  summer  they  went  barefooted  in  camp,  and  the  boys  wore 
jerseys  and  cotton  smock -overall.  The  girls  wore  gymnastic 
costumes  made  by  themselves  at  a  cost  of  about  3s.  (which 
they  paid  in  weekly  instalments  of  2d.). 

Breakfast  and  supper  were  provided  in  camp,  and  these 
meals  were  prepared  by  the  children  with  a  little  help  (in 
mixing  puddings  and  making  soup)  from  the  night  guardian 
and  nurse.  With  this  humble  setting  of  a  life  that  had 
everything  essential  to  growth  and  progtess,  we  opened  our 
two  night  camps  and  our  schools,  which  were  held  in  the 
ground  and  shelters  of  the  boys'  camp. 

Out  in  the  pure,  free -blowing  night  air  a  new  influence 
touched  the  pale  cellar -plants  that  we  had  gathered  into 
our  night  shelters.  Dr.  Eder  reported  a  great  improvement 
in  the  nervous  cases.  The  teachers  noted  a  new  steadiness, 
cleaner  and  less  trivial  talk,  and  a  sudden  and  complete  dis- 
appearance of  all  the  dirt  diseases  and  symptoms  !  Many, 
indeed,  soared  above  all  that  is  most  doleful  in  the  life  of 
yesterday.  We  "  grew  "  charming,  clear -eyed  maidens,  who 
spoke  fair  English  and  make  ideal  nurses  in  the  baby  camp. 
The  boys  got  sturdy,  and  played  the  game,  and  all  had  a 
peach -like  bloom  and  thte  restraint  of  those  whose  life  is 
deepening.  Visitors  gazed  at  out -campers  and  refused  to 
believe  that  they  came  from  poor  streets.  We  gave  remedial 
drill,  and  there  was  much  bathing  and  playing  of  games. 
We  also  gave  "  home  work  " — that  is,  preparation  to  be  done 
alone  every  evening  in  camp.  The  learning  by  doing,  so 
much  praised  by  Froebel,  is  not  possible  in  most  homes,  and 
is  not  expected  in  most  schools.  That  is  why  the  children 
do  not  learn  to  work,  while  the  parents  are  very  indignant 
that  any  one  should  expect  them  to  tackle  anything  alone. 
Teachers  are  to  pour  in  knowledge  for  five  hours  per  day — 
that  is  "  education  "  according  to  the  pre-war  elementary 
school.  We  made  war  on  this  idea  ;  war,  and  no  quarter. 
We  expected  and  required  all  our  children  to  work  alone. 
Also  to  speak  and  write  decent  English,  and  (as  an  aid  to 
this)  we  taught  a  second  language.  We  lived  in  an  historic 
neighbourhood,  and  with  tales,  songs,  and  drama  Wakened 


THE    CARE    OF    CHILD    LIFE  '287 

the  children  to  some  kind  of  emotional  interest  in  the  life- 
story  and  sites  where  they  are  brought  up.  But  once  health 
was  established  we  went  in  for  a  quicker  pace  in  mental 
work.  There  was  home-work  and  it  was  done.  The  classes 
were  small,  not  over  twenty -five,  but  the  results  were  some- 
thing of  a  revelation.  We  were  not  "  inspected,"  so  I 
cannot  write  of  that.  Of  nurture,  however,  we  can  write, 
for  the  clinic  doctors  inspected  regularly  and  often. 

"  The  experiment  succeeded,"  writes  one  of  the  doctors, 
"far  beyond  any  expectation  of  ours."  Another  writes  as 
follows:  "  The  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  girls  is  very 
remarkable.  I  am  struck  by  the  great  neatness  and  cleanli- 
ness in  the  clothing,  hair,  and  whole  person.  They  bear 
themselves  in  a  perfectly  new  way.  Their  voices,  manner  of 
speech,  and  carriage  are  entirely  chang'ed.  Sallowness  and 
pallor  have  given  place  to  healthy  bloom."  From  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Danish  authority.  Dr.  Paul  Hertz,  in  "  School 
Hygiene,"  I  quote  the  following'  extract:  "I  was  struck 
by  the  fresh  and  healthy  appearance  of  the  children  in  the 
Deptford  camps,  and  I  cannot  forbear  to  state  here  my 
opinion  that  the  simple  principles  on  which  these  camps  are 
erected  possess  a  far  greater  value  for  raising  the  health' 
standard  of  weakened  and  debilitated  children  than  the 
open-air  schools  on  the  principles  of  Charlottenburg  school. 
The  complexion  and  bodily  conditions  of  the  children  in 
the  open-air  schools  I  visited  in  England  was  essentially 
inferior  to  that  of  the  children  I  saw  in  Miss  McMillan's 
camp,  and  that  in  spite  of  the  far  poorer  conditions  of  the 
camps  in  respect  of  surrounding's,  air,  and  all  apparatus, 
than  in  the  case  of  the  open-air  schools.  I  have  the  con- 
viction that  this  effect  must  be  attributed  to  the  children's 
removal  from  the  overcrowded  slums  and  their  sleeping 
at  night  in  the  open  air.  Certainly  it  would  be  no  dis- 
advantage if  the  Charlottenburg  system  were  given  up  and 
Miss  McMillan's  camps  universally  adopted." 

Certainly  it  is  no  desire  to  hear  my  own  schools  praised 
that  makes  me  willing  to  quote  these  words.  I  have  pointed 
out  the  fact  that  already  a  great  deal  of  money  is  wasted  in 
the  buying  of  drugs  that  are  only  useful  in  warding  off  pain 
for  a  little  time.  But  let  us  think  now  of  the  probable  waste 
of  money  that  goes  on  through  a  system  of  scholarships  that 
is  founded  not  on  any  real  knowledge  of  the  environment 
of  the  children  but  on  almost  complete  ignorance  of  their 
actual  circumstances,  as  well  as  of  their  latent  powers.     We 


'288  SOCIAL'    REFORM 


> 


provide  much  the  same  kind'  of  school  for  all  orders  of 
children.  The  well-to-do  go  to  well-built,  substantial 
schools,  and  sit,  in  large  classes,  under  teachers  trained 
in  a  definite  way.  The  bathless,  ragged,  hungry  child 
who  sleeps  in  a  bed  with  five  other  persons  goes  to 
the  same  kind  of  school,  and  has  the  same  kind  of 
school  life."  '  I       i     I 

The  lot  of  millions  of  children  lies  outside  all  the  plans 
and  aims  of  yesterday's  primary  schools.  Yesterday  the 
little  voyager  was  kept  afloat  by  means  of  school  meals,  etc. 
It  could  never  lead  him  into  harbour.  It  was  never  planned 
nor  constructed  for  that. 

Even  in  the  camp  school  every  new  child  is  a  problem 
for  a  time^  not  only  to  his  teacher,  but  to  the  doctor :  and  it 
is  only  by  daily  observation  that  some  idea  can  be  formed 
of  what  he  can  really  become  or  do.  There  are  exceptions, 
of  course.  Some  children  do  well  under  almost  any  con- 
ditions. They  are  exceptions.  (And  the  "  doing  well  " 
at  examinations  is  not  alwrays  a  real  development  at  all.  In 
some  cases  it  is  a  forced  growth  that  stops  soon  and  arrives 
at  nothing.)  It  is  the  normal  child,  the  child  in  the  street, 
who  is  variable,  chameleon -like,  giving  or  withholding 
himself  according  to  his  surroundings.  There  are  millions 
of  children  who  do  not  and  cannot  profit  fully  by  anything 
done  in  schools  to-day,  because  home  life  attacks  all  thaf 
and  destroys  it  ! 

And  all  this  is  so  needless.  In  the  camp  school  no 
child  is  bathless,  or  hungty,  or  deserted  after  school- 
hours.  No  one  goes  without  enough  sleep,  or  breathes 
bad  air,  or  wears  dirty  clothing.  No  one  shares 
another's  bed,  or  does  work  for  hire  and  overtaxes  his 
strength.  And  no  one  can  escape  the  influence  of 
teachers  and  guardians,  who  have  a  goal  that  is  kept  in 
view  at  all   hours — in  lesson   hours,   but  also   in   the   early 

'  There  is  a  quotation  from  Dr.  Eder,  in  the  Fourth  Report  of  the  Deptford 
Health  Centre  : — 

"An  inquiry  is  being  made  into  the  sleeping  habits  of  children  and  the 
nervous  affections  engendered  by  overcrowding.  A  very  large  number  of 
children,  up  to  the  end  of  school  age,  sleep  two  or  three  in  the  same  bed.  I 
have  cases  of  five  and  four  in  the  same  bed.  Certain  nervous  affections  are, 
in  my  opinion,  engendered  by  this  habit.  When  the  child  is  allowed  to  have 
a  separate  bed  these  symptoms  are  not  infrequently  allayed.  •  .  .  Much  cannot 
be  expected  when  the  change  is  made  at  a  late  age. 

"  The  open-air  camp  school  with  its  separate  bed  for  each  child  has  helped 
very  much  in  some  cases," 


THE    CARE    OF    CHILD    LIFE  289 

morning,  in  wdnter  and  summer,  at  midnight  and  twilight, 
in  visits  home  (daily  and  at  week-ends),  in  play  and  pre- 
paration, in  work  and  study.  That  is  the  only  kind  of 
school  that  can  save  at  least  two  out  of  our  eight  millions 
of  children.  And  for  at  least  one -half  of  them  all  it  is  the 
school  that  can  best  ensure  health  and  a  higher  order  of 
intelligence.  ^1 

What  would  it  cost  ?  This  is  a  question  which  we  are 
now  in  a  position  to  answer  fully  and  in  detail.  The  build- 
ing of  camp -shelters  is  not  costly.  A  large  shelter  serving 
sixty  children  as  dormitory^  and  eighty  to  a  htindred  as 
classroom,  would  not  in  pre-war  days  cost  over  £150.  A 
bathroom,  with  hot -water  boiler  attached,  could  be  built  for 
under  £40.  The  drainage  was  £t;o.  (In  the  babies'  camp 
the  drainage  cost  over  £100.  The  building  cost  of  the 
three  shelters,  to  take  seventy  children,  was  about  £180. 
The  problem  is  one  for  the  more  advanced  orders  of 
architects.  Many  existing  school  buildinsfs  could  be  adapted, 
terraces  run  up  and  covered  ways,  and  walls  lowered  or 
removed.  Above  all,  the  many  open -spaces  (not  refuse 
pitches)  in  poor  areas,  should  be  cleaned,  part  concreted, 
and  made  into  smaller  camps,  with  waste  g'round  laid  under 
cultivation.  War  tents,  huts,  and  shelters,  most  of  which 
may  be  scrapped,  could  be  bought  in  large  quantities  by  the 
education  authorities  as  raw  material  or  even  as  ready-made 
buildings.  At  the  back  of  all  the  three  Deptford  camps 
(girls',  babies',  and  boys'  night  camp)  there  are  large  vacant 
spaces,  in  one  of  which  three  hundred  boys  or  girls  could 
sleep  in  night  camps  !  In  short,  there  is  hardly  any  building 
problem. 

A  much  more  difficult  thing  is  the  staff  question — ^though 
that  also  may  be  more  easily  met  now  than  at  any  former 
time.  The  camp  needs  a  double  staff,  but  not  a  double 
staff  of  teachers.  The  night  guardian  has  a  different  func- 
tion from  that  of  the  day-teacher,  and  he  will  work,  we  hope, 
under  the  eye  of  the  doctor  and  also  of  headmasters  and 
mistresses.  He  has  to  give  a  home  atmosphere  to  the 
camp,  and  to  be  a  hygienist.  He  must  be  a  lover  of  games 
and  outdoor  life,  and  yet  know  the  value  of  study  alone 
in  the  evening  or  early  morning.  It  seems  to  me  that 
among  the  many  naval  and  military  men,  unfitted  perhaps 
for  "  active  service  "  in  the  field  or  on  the  sea,  there  may 
be  found  many  who  could  do  great  service  to  their  country 
in  taking  night -camp  work.     One  man  could  take  forty  to 

19 


290  SOCIAL     REFORM 

fifty  boys.  In  camp  the  principal  can  have  the  help  of  older 
children  as  monitors. 

The  day  school  might  be  fed  from  three  or  even  more 
night  camps.  The  classes  should  not  be  over  thirty  if  the 
best  results  are  to  be  hoped  for,  and  this  brings  us  to  the 
question  of  salaries.  The  country  needs  an  army  of  two 
hundred  thousand  elementary  teachers.  Of  these  at  least 
twenty  thousand  should  be  specialists  in  remedial  drill,  and 
an  equal  number  specialists  in  other  subjects.  The  nation 
should  be  prepared  to  spend  £40,000,000  per  annum  on 
teachers'  and  nurses'  and  guardians'  salaries  now.  Later 
it  may  find  a  great  advantage  in  spending  a  great  deal  more 
— for  these,  if  efficient,  will  cut  directly  and  rapidly  at  the 
very  root  causes  of  terrible  disease,  misery,  poverty,  and 
waste. 

Finally,  the  new  age  requires  a  new  outlook,  for  it  unveils 
new  horizons.  Not  by  mere  tinkering  at  age-long  evils  can 
it  hope  to  unseal  the  well-springs  of  a  new  world.  We 
have  spent  much  time  in  gathering  statistics,  in  comparing 
"  methods,"  and  also  in  a  great  variety  of  pettifogging 
reforms.  The  time  for  such  work  is  over.  Through  the 
dimness  that  is  our  past  and  the  cloud  of  storm  and  blood 
that  lies  just  behind  us  glances  something  that  is  more 
precious  than  anything  that  we  hoped  for  and  aspired  to. 
It  is  the  hope  of  the  generations  to  follow,  the  dazzling,  un- 
dreamed-of joy  that  echoes  through  the  footfalls  of  colossal 
failure  and  sorrow. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

Unsolved  Problems  of  the  English 
Poor  Law 

By  Sir  WILLIAM   CHANCE,  Bart.,  MA. 

All  thinking  persons,  especially  those  interested  in  social 
and  economic  subjects,  are  sensible  that  things  in  this 
country  cannot  be  the  same  after  the  war  as  they  were 
before,  and  that  the  whole  of  our  national  institutions  and 
way  of  living  will  be  then  subjected  to  the  closest  scrutiny. 
Not  to  speak  of  the  future  relations  of  our  country  to  the 
great  Dominions  and  Dependencies  of  the  Empire  and  to 
foreign  countries,  internal  questions,  fiscal,  land,  parlia- 
mentary reform,  national  education,  public  relief,  to 
mention  only  some  of  the  most  important  ones,  cannot 
escape  it.  It  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  deal  with  the  subject 
of  Public  Relief  in  this  chapter,  and  to  suggest  in  what 
way  its  administration — for  its  principles  are  sound  and 
well  founded — may  be  brought  into  Une  with  other  great 
changes  in  our  political  and  social  life. 

Were  I  writing  some  twenty -five  years  ago  I  should 
have  said,  what  in  fact  I  then  thought,  that  the  problem 
of  the  Poor  Law  had  been  solved,  and  I  should  have  pointed 
to  the  great  decrease  of  general  pauperism  which  the 
country  had  witnessed  since  the  great  Reform  of  1834,  and 
especially  to  the  decrease  of  able-bodied  pauperism.  A 
decrease  in  general  pauperism  from  627  per  1,000  of  popula- 
tion in  1849  to  256  in  1892,  and  in  able-bodied  pauperism 
of  from  1 32  to  32  per  1,000  of  population  during  the 
same  period,  seemed  to  me  to  show  that  the  new  Poor 
Law  had  been  successful  beyond  all  expectation,  and  that 

it  was  only  necessary  to  continue  the  then  existing  system 

991 


292  SOCIAL    REFORM 

for  the  pauperism  of  the  country  to  be  reduced  still 
further.' 

In  1892  the  expenditure  in  relief  per  head  of  popula- 
tion stood  at  the  same  figure — viz.  6s.  id. — as  in  1844, 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  enormous  improvement  which  had 
taken  place  in  institutional  relief  during  these  forty-eight 
years.  But,  in  spite  of  such  evidences  of  progress  in  the 
depauperization  of  the  nation,  the  principles  on  which  the 
Poor  Law  is  based  were  subjected  to  the  most  violent 
attacks  by  ill-informed  critics.  Its  administration  was 
described  as  "  scandalously  harsh  to  those  who  have  the 
misfortune  to  be  driven  to  accept  the  pauper  dole."  "  The 
ruling  classes  have  deliberately  made  the  lot  of  these  poorer 
citizens  so  degraded  that  the  more  sensitive  will  die  linger- 
ing deaths  rather  than  submit  to  it,  whilst  others  prefer 
going  to  gaol."  "After  fifty  years  of  trial  it  [the  Poor 
Law]  has  failed  to  extinguish  pauperism  and  destitution. 
It  succeeds  in  obviating  any  but  a  few  cases  of  direct 
starvation  ;  but  it  does  not  prevent  a  widespread 
demoralization.  It  often  fails  to  secure  the  children 
from  a  life  of  pauperism  and  the  aged  from  public  dis- 
grace. More  important  than  all,  it  fails  utterly  in  its 
chief  and  most  important  purpose,  of  encouraging  the 
provident  and  the  worthy,  and  discouraging  the  spend- 
thrift and  the  drunkard.  It  is  indeed  now  coming  to  be 
denounced  by  experienced  philanthropists  as  the  greatest 
of  all  the  existing  hindrances  to  provident  saving,  and  an 
instrument  of  serious  degeneration  of  character  among  the 
English  people." 

The  pamphlet  2  from  which  the  above  extract  is  taken 
appeared  at  the  time  when  the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire  had 
come  into  bad  odour,  and  when  the  help  of  the  State,  other 

'  The  actual  figures  are  as  follows  : — Average  daily  number  of  paupers  of  all 
classes  during  the  years  ended  at  Lady  Day  1849 and  1892  ("Mean  Pauperism  ") — 


(i)  All  Classes  of  Paupers. 

Indoor 
Paupers. 

Rate  per 

i.oooof 
Estimated 
Population. 

Rate  per 

1,000  of 
Outdoor       Estimated 
Paupers.     Population. 

Total 
Paupers. 

Rate  per 

1,000  of 

Estimated 

Population 

Year  1848-49 

133,513 

77 

955,146         55-0 

1,088,659 

627 

„     1891-92 

186,607 

6-4 

558,150         19-2 

744,757 

25-6 

(2)  Able-bodied  Paupers,  excluding  Vagrants. 
Year  1848-49  26,558  1-5  202,265         117  228,823        13-2 

„     1891-92  26,392  0-9  66,073  2-3  92,465         3'2 

'  "  The  Reform  of  the  Poor  Law,"  Fabian  Tract  No.  173,  by  Sidney  Webb 
(1891). 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF    THE    POOR    LAW     293 

than  in  the  form  of  a  carefully  restricted  system  of  public 
assistance,  was  being  invoked  in  many  directions  "  to  secure 
a  greater  protection  for  the  poor  against  the  rapacity  of 
the  rich,  for  the  workman  against  the  tyranny  of  his 
employer,  for  the  child  against  the  neglect  of  its  parents." 
The  extension  of  the  franchise  in  1884  strengthened  the 
hands  of  those  who  put  themselves  forward  as  the  special 
champions  of  the  downtrodden  classes,  and  gave  rise  to 
the  legislation  which  came  to  be  described  as  "  socialistic." 
Politicians  of  both  the  great  parties  strove  which  could 
outbid  the  other  for  the  popular  vote.  New  relief  agencies 
were  established  to  do  work  which  it  was  thought  un- 
advisable  to  leave  to  the  Poor  Law,  mainly  because  it  was 
so  "  unpopular."  As  a  consequence,  omitting  the  very 
great  rise  in  the  cost  of  education  since  1892,'  these 
new  agencies  are  responsible  for  an  addition  of  fully 
£20,000,000  a  ^ear  to  the  taxation  of  the  country  ;  and, 
instead  of  Poor  Law  expenditure  being  reduced  thereby, 
it  actually  increased  from  nearly  £9,000,000  in  1892  to 
over  £15,000,000  in  1914.  As  to  the  number  of  paupers 
of  all  classes,  their  mean  number  increased  from  744,575 
in  1892  to  916,377  in  19 10,  while  able-bodied  pauperism 
rose  during  the  same  period  from  92,465  to  126,629. 
It  is  impossible  to  make  any  fair  comparison  of  the  latest 
figures  of  pauperism  with  those  of  19 10  or  of  previous 
years  on  account  of  the  effect  produced  by  the  Old  Age 
Pensions  Act,  which  in  1 9 1 1  transferred  a  number  of  aged 
paupers  from  the  Poor  Law  to  the  Pension  authorities, 
so  1  shall  not  attempt  to  do  so. 

I.  The  Poor  Law  Commission  of  1905. 

Having  regard,  then,  to  the  increase  of  pauperism  and 
of  poor  relief  expenditure  during  the  years  following  1892, 
it  was  not  surprising  that  a  Royal  Commission  should  have 
been  appointed  at  the  close  of  1905,  which  was  directed 
to  inquire  into  the  working  of  the  Poor  Laws  and  into 
the  various  means  which  had  been  adopted  outside  of  those 
Laws  for  meeting  distress  arising  from  want  of  employ- 
ment, particularly  during  periods  of  severe  industrial 
depression,  and  also  to  consider  and  report  whether  any 
modification    or    change    in    their    administration    or    fresh 

'  The  cost  of  public  education  in  England  and  Wales  rose  from  ;^4,838,120 
in  1892  to  ;^"29,7oo,273  in  1912. 


294  SOCIAL    REFORM 

legislation  for  dealing  with  distress  were  advisable.  This 
Commission  sat  for  just  over  three  years,  issued  its  Report 
in  February  1909,  and  was  not  unanimous,  four  of  its 
members  signing  a  Minority  Report.  The  Majority  Report 
practically  stood  to  the  principles  of  1834,  but  recom- 
mended an  entire  change  in  administration,  which  was, 
however,  dissented  from  by  Miss  Octavia  Hill  and  Dr. 
(now  Sir  Arthur)  Downes,  while  the  Minority  Report 
advocated  an  entire  break  up  of  the  existing  Poor  Law, 
and  the  transfer  of  all  relief  work,  except  that  connected 
with  the  relief  of  the  able-bodied  and  vagrants,'  to  the 
various  Committees  of  County  Councils. 2 

I  do  not  propose  to  enlarge  on  the  extraordinary  con- 
fusion and  overlapping  of  public  relief  which  would  result 
if  the  recommendations  of  the  Minority  Report  were 
adopted,  even  assuming  that  they  were  practical.  It  is 
sufficient  to  refer  my  readers  to  some  of  the  numerous 
criticisms    of    it    which    have    been    published. 3      It    is    not 

'  "  For  these  there  should  be  a  new  authority  of  national  scofe  and  a 
Government  Department  organizing  Labour  Exchanges  all  over  the  kingdom, 
developing  a  system  of  insurance  against  unemployment,  doing  what  is  possible 
to  regularize  seasonal  and  casual  labour,  and  providing  for  all  sections  of  able- 
bodied  men  in  distress  whatever  colonies  and  training  may  be  required" 
("  An  Outline  of  the  Proposal  to  Break  Up  the  Poor  Law,"  published  by  The 
National! Committee  to  Promote  the  Breaking  Up  of  the  Poor  Law). 

"  In  "  English  Poor  Law  Policy,"  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb  (Mrs. 
Webb  having  been  one  of  the  signatories  to  the  Minority  Report),  the  authors 
claim  that  the  Majority  Report  abandoned  the  principles  of  1834  altogether, 
and  adhered  to  those  of  1907.  In  other  words,  they  make  the  extraordinary 
claim  that  what  they  call  "  the  principles  of  1907,"  i.e.  the  principles  laid  down 
by  themselves,  are  accepted  by  the  Majority  Report  (see  pages  204  to  207  of  their 
book) !  The  comments  contained  in  Part  III  of  the  Majority  Report  (pp.  71-80) 
on  the  principles  of  1843  taken  as  a  whole  give  no  support  to  such  a  statement, 
as  any  careful  reader  must  admit.  It  is  indeed  stated  (p.  80  of  the  Report)  that 
the  "  less  eligibility "  principle  was  intended  by  the  reformers  of  the  Old 
Poor  Law  to  apply  to  able-bodied  only.  But  such  a  statement  is  not  supported, 
indeed  it  is  definitely  contradicted,  by  an  extract  from  the  Report  of  1834, 
given  on  p.  74,  which  says  "  throughout  the  evidence  it  is  shown,  that  in  pro- 
portion as  the  condition  of  any  pauper  class  [the  italics  are  my  own]  is  elevated 
above  the  condition  of  independent  labourers,  the  condition  of  the  independent 
classes  is  depressed,  their  industry  is  impaired,  their  employment  becomes 
unsteady,  and  its  remuneration  in  wages  is  diminished."  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  reformers  of  1832  were  mainly  interested  in  restoring  the  able-bodied 
pauper  of  that  time  to  independence,  and  so  devoted  their  main  efforts  to 
secure  ,that  desirable  result,  but  the  "  less  eligibility "  principle  was  never 
meant  to  be  applied  to  that  class  only. 

J  The  Minority  Report.  "  A  Criticism  "  (P.  S.  King  &  Son,  1910)  ;  "The  Poor 
Law  Indispensable,"  by  Mr.  Gladstone  Walker  (The  Poor  Law  Publication* 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF   THE    POOR    LAW     295 

surprising  that  Socialists  are  loud  in  their  praises  of  it. 
It  carries  out  their  ideal  of  bureaucratic  government,  and 
Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  in  "  New  Worlds  for  Old,"  welcomed 
it  with  ecstasy  as  follows  :  "  The  Minority  Report,  boldly 
planned  and  magnificently  done,  expresses  just  that  de- 
liberately constructive  Socialism  which  I  have  always 
advocated.      I  adopt  the  Minority  Report  as  my  banner." 

II.  The  Majority  Report. 

The  Majority  Report,  on  the  other  hand,  deserves  the 
most  serious  consideration.  Its  great  merit  lies  in  its 
directing  attention  to  the  pressing  need  of  the  consolida- 
tion of  all  public  relief  under  one  Central  Authority, 
which  it  recommended  should  be  a  "  Public  Assistance 
Division  "  of  the  Local  Government  Board.  We  need  not 
quarrel  over  the  new  term  "  Public  Assistance  "  to  replace 
the  present  one  of  "  Poor  Relief."  Where  the  great 
difference  of  opinion  exists  is  about  the  local  authorities 
who  are  to  administer  it  ;  indeed,  it  was  on  this  point 
that  all  the  Majority   Commissioners  could  not  agree.' 

The  Report  recommended  that  these  authorities  should 
be  the  County  and  County  Borough  Councils,  working 
through  Statutory  Public  Assistance  Authorities,  consti- 
tuted in  much  the  same  way  as  County  Education  Com- 
mittees now  are.  Boards  of  Guardians  were  to  be  abolished 
and  replaced  by  Public  Assistance  Committees,  appointed 
by  and  working  under  each  Statutory  Authority.  Side 
by  side  with  these  new  bodies  were  to  be  established 
Voluntary  Aid  Councils  and  Committees  and  County  and 
Local  Medical  Assistance  Committees.  This  new  adminis- 
trative machinery  will  be  more  clearly  understood  by  the 
following   diagram : 

Public  Assistance  Division  of  the 
Local  Government  Board. 


County  Voluntary  County  Public  Assistance  County  Medical  Assistance 

Aid  Council.                         Authority.  Committee. 

Local  Voluntary  Local  Public  Assistance  Local   Medical  Assistance 

Aid  Committee.                     Committee.  Committee. 


Company,  1914)  ;  Papers  read  at  Poor  Law  Conferences — e.g.  by  Mr.  A.  F. 
VuUiamy  (Central  Poor  Law  Conference,  1910),  by  Rev.  S.  Morgan  (South 
Wales  District  Conference,  1910),  and  by  Mr.  T.  Hancock  Nunn  (Yorkshire 
District  Conference,  1910). 

•  See  the  Memoranda  attached  to  the  Report  of  the  late  Miss  Octavia  Hill 
and  Sir  Arthur  Downes  on  thi«  point. 


296  SOCIAL    REFORM 

The  great  idea  underlying  the  new  scheme  was,  of  course, 
to  secure  a  better  relief  organization  by  bringing  all  the 
various  agencies  of  public  and  private  charity  into  close 
connection  with  one  another,  with  a  view  to  better  co-opera- 
tion between  them  in  every  branch  of  relief  work,  and  to 
prevent  overlapping.  The  Majority  Commissioners,  how- 
ever, accepted  the  proposals  of  the  Royal  Commission  on 
the  Care  and  Control  of  the  Feeble-minded,  and  did  not 
suggest,  as  in  the  case  of  those  of  the  Departmental  Com- 
mittee on  Vagrancy,  that,  before  any  action  was  taken  upon 
them,  the  Government  should  carefully  consider  the  effect  of 
their  own  proposals  for  the  reorganization  of  the  Poor  Law 
system.  As  the  Old  Age  Pensions  Act  of  1908  came 
into  force  before  their  Report  appeared,  the  subject  was 
removed  from  their  cognizance,  and  we  can  only  guess 
what  their  recommendations  would  have  been  on  the 
subject. 

III.  Mr.  Charles  Booth's  Scheme. 

Mr.  Charles  Booth,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Poor 
Law  Commission  until  his  forced  retirement  from  it  owing 
to  ill -health  before  it  had  concluded  its  work,  prepared 
Memoranda  (printed  in  Volume  XII  of  the  Appendix  to 
the  Report)  outlining  another  scheme  of  Poor  Law 
Reform.  J  He  retained  the  present  parish  area  as  the  Unit 
of  each  Union,  and  the  existing  Unions  as  the  Units 
for  grouping  under  District  Poor  Law  Boards,  with  direct 
ad  hoc  election  by  ratepayers.  By  this  means  he  thought 
the  consolidation  of  all  public  relief,  on  which  he  laid 
great  stress,  could  be  secured.  These  District  Boards  were 
to  be  elected  by  the  ratepayers  of  each  constituent  Union, 
and  a  certain  number  of  residential  nominees  of  the  Local 
Government  Board  were  to  be  added  to  each  Board.  They 
would  take  over  all  the  duties  and  liabilities  of  the  present 
Board  of  Guardians,  together  with  all  existing  Poor  Law 
Institutions.  But  any  duties  not  specially  connected  with 
Poor  Law  administration  (such  as  vaccination,  registration 
of  births,  and  valuation  for  assessment)  would  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  appropriate  authority,  so  that  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Poor  Law  should  be  the  sole  work  of  the  Boards . 
London,  for  example,  was  to  be  under  one  of  these  Poor 
Law  Boards. 

'  These  Memoranda  have  been  republished  in  book  form,  with  very  little 
alteration,  by  Macmillan  &  Co.  under  the  title  of  "  Poor  Law  Reform."  (New 
Issue,  1911.) 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF    THE    POOR   LAW     297 

If  such  Boards  were  established,  he  saw  no  reason  why 
the  care  of  lunatics,  mental  defectives,  vagrants,  and  the 
unemployed  should  not  be  left  to  them  to  provide  for. 
Sir  Arthur  Downes,  who  was  one  of  the  signatories  to  this 
Majority  Report,  but  who  was  wholly  opposed  to  the 
administrative  changes  in  the  system  of  poor  relief  which 
it  recommended,  appears  to  favour  Mr.  Booth's  proposals 
in  his  Memorandum,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  their 
adoption  would  get  over  many  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
securing  the  consolidation  of  all  public  relief  under  one 
authority,  which  seems  to  me  to  be  so  desirable.  It  must 
be  noted  that  the  scheme  is  designed  to  preserve  the 
existing  Poor  Law  fabric,  instead  of  destroying  it  root  and 
branch . 

IV.  The  Scheme  of  the   National  Committee  for 
Poor  Law  Reform. 

This  scheme  was  formulated  in  1908  by  the  British 
Constitution  Association,  and  a  National  Committee  for 
Poor  Law  Reform  was  established  to  bring  it  to  the  public 
notice.'  It  went  strongly  for  the  consolidation  of  all  Poor 
Law  work,  under  one  central  and  separate  authority.  It 
recognized  that  the  administration  of  the  present  Poor  Law 
system  was  unsatisfactory,  but  that  it  could  be  set  right 
and  made  more  efficient  without  any  revolutionary  changes. 
The  present  ad  hoc  Poor  Law  Authorities  were  to  be 
preserved,  and  the  recommendations  of  the  Majority  Com- 
missioners that  the  relief  of  the  unemployed  and  the  feeding 
of  necessitous  school  children  should  be  again  brought 
within  the  province  of  the  Poor  Law  were  supported.  The 
scheme  also  suggested  that  Boards  of  Guardians  might  be 
strengthened  by  giving  to  the  County  Councils  and  other 
statutory  authorities  the  right  to  appoint  representatives  on 
to  all  Boards  of  Guardians  within  their  areas.  It  further 
suggested  that  Boards  of  Guardians  should  be  continuous, 
a  proportion  only  of  the  members  retiring  at  each  election. 
Close  relations  between  the  official  administration  of  the 
Poor  Law  and  local  charitable  bodies  should  be  brought 
about  by  the  establishment  of  central  registries  as  recom- 

'  The  Scheme  has  been  published  in  pamphlet  form  under  the  title  of 
"Poor  Law  Reform  not  Revolution"  (British  Constitution  Association,  ii 
Tothill  Street,  S.W.,  3d.),  and  is  also  dealt  with  in  "  Poor  Law  Reform,  via 
Tertia,"  by  the  present  writer  (P.  S.  King  &  Son,  is.  net). 


298  SOCIAL    REFORM 

mended  in  the  Minute  of  the  Poor  Law  Board  of  the  20th 
November  1869. 

V.  Defects  of  the  Present  Poor  Law  System,  and 
THE  Remedies. 

The  proposals  for  the  administrative  reform  of  the  Poor 
Law  were,  of  course,  based  on  certain  glaring  defects  which 
the  Report  of  the  Poor  Law  Commission  brought  to  light. 
Some  of  these  defects  have  since  been  remedied,  following 
upon  recommendations  made  in  the  Report,  and  I  hope 
to  show  that  remaining  ones  can  be  remedied  without 
destroying  the  whole  Poor  Law  fabric. 

For  some  of  the  defects  Boards  of  Guardians  were  not 
in  any  way  responsible.  Such  arise  from  (i)  the  size  of 
many  Boards,  (2)  the  qualifications  for  election  of 
Guardians,  (3)  the  system  of  their  retirement  from  office, 
and  (4)  the  want  of  a  better  classification  of  the  indoor 
poor.  Defects  for  which  Guardians  may  be  considered 
responsible  arise  from  neglect  in  carrying  out  what  are 
generally  considered  to  be  sound  principles  of  relief,  but 
they  could  be  cured  by  a  freer  use  of  the  great  powers 
which  the  Central  Authority  possesses  to  ensure  good  relief 
administration . 

I.  Defects  for  which  Boards  of  Guardians  cannot  be 
considered  responsible . 

(a)  Size  of  Boards. — There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
is  an  adverse  influence  to  good  administration.  At  the 
present  time  two  Unions  have  each  103  Guardians,  while 
242  Unions  out  of  643  have  more  than  40.'  The  Unions 
thus  over-represented  are  mostly  rural  ones  with  a  large 
number  of  separate  parishes,  each  of  which  must  have  one 
Guardian  at  least  .2  If,  as  recommended  by  the  Poor  Law 
Commission,  it  was  left  to  County  Coimcils  or  the  Public 
Assistance  Authorities  to  appoint  the  Local  Committees 
which  were  intended  to  be  set  up  in  the  place  of  Board 
of  Guardians,  it  would  be  easy  to  limit  the  number  of 
members  to  a  reasonable  amount.      Under  the  scheme  of 

'  One  Union  has  go  Guardians  ;  eight  from  80  to  90  ;  twelve  from  70  to  80  ; 
twenty-eight  from  60  to  70  ;  and  sixty-two  from  50  to  60  ;  the  remaining  131 
Unions  having  between  40  to  50  Guardians. 

*  In  rural  parishes  the  district  councillor  for  the  parish  acts  as  Guardian, 
there  being  since  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  no  separate  elections  for 
the  office  in  these  parishes. 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF    THE    POOR   LAW     299 

Mr.  Charles  Booth,  too,  the  problem  could  be  easily  solved, 
because  he  would  have  the  election  of  Rural  Guardians 
again  separated  from  those  of  Rural  District  Committees, 
and  an  amalgamation  of  parishes  for  the  purpose  of  limit- 
ing their  number.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  defect  of  the  scheme 
of  the  National  Committee  for  Poor  Law  Reform  that  it 
does  not  deal  with  this  very  important  question.  But  as 
a  matter  of  fact  the  abnormal  and  unnecessary  size  of 
many  Boards  arises  from  the  fact  of  Urban  Districts  which 
elect  Guardians  ad  hoc  being  often  grossly  over-repre- 
sented on  the  Union  Boards,  and  there  ought  to  be  little 
difficulty  in  reducing  their  representation  to  more  moderate 
proportions.  It  might  also  be  possible  without  again  re- 
sorting to  the  ad  hoc  election  of  Guardians  in  every 
Union,  and  so  necessitating  an  amendment  of  the  Local 
Government  Act  of  1894,  to  amalgamate  the  small  rural 
parishes  with  adjoining  ones  for  the  purpose  of  the  election 
of  Rural  District  Councillors,  and  so  reduce  the  number 
of  Guardians  representing  rural  parishes.  But  the  argu- 
ments for  returning  to  the  old  system  of  electing  Guardians 
ad  hoc  and  for  separating  Poor  Law  entirely  from  other 
administrative  work  seem  to  me  to  be  so  strong  that  it 
would  be  better  to  amend  the  Act  of  1894  in  this  regard, 
if  the  necessary  reform  would  not  be  effected  in  any 
other  way. 

(b)  Qualifications  for  Election  as  Guardians. — However 
desirable  it  may  be  considered  to  alter  the  present  law 
under  this  head,  it  is  questionable  whether,  in  this  demo- 
cratic age,  any  Parliament  would  venture  to  do  so.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  alleged  evils 
of  the  present  system  are  nearly  so  great  as  represented. 
Further,  the  relief  orders  of  the  Central  Authority  afford 
a  considerable  protection  against  the  abuse  of  Guardians* 
powers  in  the  matter  of  relief.  In  the  Majority  Report 
the  farmer  class  of  Guardians  is  especially  attacked.  It 
is  said  that  farmers  are  always  against  any  change  which  is 
going  to  cost  money.  "They  always  look  at  everj'  penny 
they  pay  in  rates  very  keenly,  and  they  come  in  and  oppose 
expenditure  of  all  kinds."  But  is  it  proposed,  and  if  so  how, 
to  disqualify  farmers  from  sitting  on  Boards  of  Guardians, 
or  even  on  the  new  bodies  which  it  is  proposed  should 
replace  these  Boards  ?  And  the  same  witness  quoted  in 
the  Report  admits  that  in  spite  of  a  farmer's  opposition 
he  generally  has  to  give  way  in  the  end,  so  that,  after  all. 


300  SOCIAL    REFORM 

the  desired  reform  is  only  delayed  for  a  time.  Compare 
our  Poor  Law  institutions  and  their  staffs  with  what  they 
were  fifty  years  ago.  Progress  may  have  been  slow,  but 
is  it  not  possible  that  it  may  have  been  sure  as  well? 
The  suggestions  of  the  National  Committee  for  Poor  Law 
Reform  would,  1  think,  work  far  more  effectively  than  the 
setting  up  of  new  and  non -elected  authorities  as  a  remedy 
for  the  evils  imder  this  head  to  which  the  Majority  Report 
calls  attention.  That  Committee  was  of  opinion  that  the 
Local  Authority  should  be  elected  by  those  who  contribute 
the  funds  to  be  administered,  and  that  the  democratic  prin- 
ciple of  elections  should  be  preserved,  but  in  conjunction 
with  effective  safeguards  enforced  by  a  non -elected  Central 
Authority.  Any  disadvantages  arising  from  a  popular 
electoral  system  might  be  minimized — 

(a)  By  the  authoritative  publication  of  a  clear  statement 
of  the  law — in  other  words,  a  simple  and  intelligible  abstract 
or  precis  of  the   Acts,   rules,  and   regulations  in  force  ; 

(b)  By  more  frequent  inspection  on  behalf  of  the  Central 
Authority  by  inspectors  trained  in  the  details  of  administra- 
tion and  having  a  knowledge  both  of  the  law  and  the 
economic  principles   which  underlie   it  ; 

(c)  By  the  decisions  of  the  auditor  being  upheld  by 
the  Central  Authority  when  they  are  found  to  be  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law  ;  for  the  constant  remission  of  illegal 
expenditure  has  a  demoralizing  effect  upon  the  auditors, 
as  well  as  upon  the  Guardians  and  their  officials. 

(d)  By  enforcing  responsibility  on  all  who  have 
sanctioned  an  illegal  expenditure  by  vote  or  otherwise, 
and  not  merely  on  those  signing  the  cheque  ; 

And  (e)  by  the  appointment  of  relieving  officers  who 
have  previously  passed  an  examination,  both  written  and 
oral,  conducted  by  some  qualified  authority,  upon  the  work 
and  duties  of  their  office. 

(c)  Retirement  from  Office. — In  order  to  get  the  best 
relief  administration  it  is  desirable  that  a  proportion  only 
of  the  members  of  a  Board  of  Guardians  should  retire  at 
one  time.  A  Board  holds  office  for  three  years,  and  then 
it  must  retire  as  a  whole,  but  a  County  Council  may  order 
that  a  third  or  as  near  that  number  as  possible  of  the 
members  shall  retire  at  the  end  of  each  year.  By  this 
expedient  continuity  is  secui;ed,  and  a  sudden  change  of 
relief  policy  prevented,  and  it  would  be  well  if  this  method 
of  retirement  was  made  universal. 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF    THE    POOR    LAW     301 

(d)  Classification  of  Paupers  by  Institutions. — For  many 
years  after  the  Poor  Law  was  reformed  in  1832  and  work- 
houses had  been  established,  the  classification  of  the  inmates 
was  carried  out  in  the  workhouse  itself  under  the  orders 
and  regulations  of  the  Central  Authority.' 

But  during  the  last  forty  years  great  changes  have  taken 
place.  Country  workhouses  have  become  the  last  refuge  of 
many  aged,  non -able -bodied,  and  sick  persons.  Very  few 
really  able-bodied  persons  resort  to  them.  In  the  town 
workhouse,  where  a  certain  number  of  able-bodied  paupers 
have  to  be  provided  for,  the  size  of  the  buildings  and  the 
separate  infirmary  enable  thtese  and  the  other  classes  of 
inmates  to  be  kept  separate.  Further,  in  both  Urban  and 
Rural  Unions  alike,  children  over  three  years  of  age  must 
be  housed  in  buildings  separated  from  the  workhouse 
proper,  where  they  are  not  already  otherwise  provided  for 
separately,  and  their  scholastic  education  is  now  under  the 
control  of  the  Education  Authorities.  Again,  much  use 
is  made  by  Boards  of  Guardians  of  special  institutions 
for  the  mentally  and  physicallv  unfit,  sane  epileptics,  the 
blind,  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  other  special  cases,  while 
in  some  parts  of  the  country  the  Unions  have  combined 
for  the  purpose  of  providing  separate  accommodation 
themselves   for    mental    defectives    and    sane  epileptics. 

But,  if  it  is  considered  advisable  to  divide  the  country 
into  districts  (not  necessarily  by  counties^  and  to  set  aside 
as  many  of  the  Poor  Law  institutions  in  each  district  as 
may  be  required  for  the  reception  of  diff"erent  classes  of 
the  indoor  poor  chargeable  to  the  Unions  in  the  district, 
there  are  ways  of  effecting  this  reform  under  the  existing 
law  without  any  change  of  authority.  But  I  doubt  whether, 
outside  London,  this  is  either  advisable,  necessary,  econo- 
mical, or  in  the  real  interest  of  the  ordinary  workhouse 
inmate.  For  the  wants  of  special  classes  of  paupers,  such 
as  the  able-bodied  and  those  abbvte  mentioned,  districts 
might  be  formed,  each  with  much  the  same  population, 
and  a  body  consisting  of  representatives  of  all  the  Boards 
within  each  district,  appointed  on  the  lines  of  the  Metro- 
politan Asylums  Board,  and  charged  with  much  the  same 
duties.  At  the  same  time,  a  Common  Poor  Fund  might 
be  established  in  each  district,  as  has  been  done  in  London, 
so  as  to  spread  the  cost  of  the  improved  system  as  evenly 
'  I  have  found  it  convenient  to  use  the  old  term  "  Workhouse "  instead  of 
"  Institution  "  throughout  this  chapter. 


302  SOCIAL    REFORM 

as  possible  over  the  whole  district.  This  reform  would, 
to  my  mind,  be  more  effective  than  any  system  of  classifica- 
tion of  workhouses,  as  recommended  in  the  Majority  Report, 
and  would  enable  the  bringing  under  the  Poor  Law  (or 
Public  Assistance,  if  this  term  be  preferred)  every  kind 
of  public  relief  work.  If  a  Common  Poor  Fund  were  estab- 
lished in  each  Poor  Law  district  as  suggested,  then  it  could 
also  be  credited  with  the  Exchequer  grant  for  distribution 
among  the  combined  Unions  in  accordance  with  fixed  rules. 

2.  Defects  for  which  Boards  of  Guardians  are  Respon- 
sible.— Although  the  Poor  Law  orders  and  regulations  arfe 
very  precise  as  to  the  treatment  of  any  person  after  he 
has  once  been  admitted  into  a  Poor  Law  institution,  they 
allow  Boards  of  Guardians  a  fairly  free  hand  in  deciding 
whether  to  grant  indoor  or  outdoor  relief,  and  as  to  the 
amount  of  outdoor  relief  to  be  given.  The  consequence 
of  this  is  that  while  we  find  a  very  small  variation  in  the 
ratios  of  the  numbers  of  persons  in  receipt  of  indoor  relief 
to  population  at  any  particular  date  in  Unions  of  a  similar 
character,  the  variations  in  the  corresponding  ratios  of  out- 
door pauperism  may  be  very  great  indeed.  In  some  Unions 
the  only  outdoor  paupers  are  a  few  in  receipt  of  medical 
relief  only  ;  in  another  Union  of  a  similar  type  they  may 
be  numbered  by  hundreds.  This  difference  is  brought  about 
by  different  ideas  as  to  what  policy  ought  to  be  followed 
in  the  grant  of  relief.  One  Board  may  act  on  the  "  work- 
house test  "  principle,  and  practically  offer  the  relief  of 
the  "  House  "  to  every  applicant  ;  another  may  cause  very 
careful  inquiries  to  be  made  into  the  position,  means,  and 
mode  of  life  of  an  applicant  before  granting  outdoor  relief  ; 
while  a  third  may  have  got  into  the  habit  of  making  it 
the  rule  to  grant  it  "  because  it  would  be  so  hard  to 
compel  the  applicant  with  his  family  "  to  come  into  the 
workhouse,  or  because  they  labour  under  the  entirely  wrong 
impression  that  it  is  the  cheaper  course  to  adopt. 

Nowadays,  I  think,  the  majority  of  Boards  of  Guardians 
adopt  the  middle  course,  and  more  and  more  are  coming 
to  accept  the  principle  that  it  is  unjust  to  the  ratepayers — 
many  of  whom  may  be  as  badly  off  as  the  applicant  for 
relief  himself — to  grant  relief,  whether  indoor  or  outdoor, 
to  any  one  until  after  the  most  careful  inquiry  and  con- 
sideration has  been  made  or  given  as  to  the  character  of 
himself  and  his  family,  as  to  whether  the  relief  is  really 
wanted,  and  as  to  the  best  form  in  which  to  give  it .   Furthietr 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF   THE    POOR    LAW     303 

than  this,  it  is  becoming  more  general,  if  outdoor  relief 
is  given,  not  to  give  it  according  to  a  fixed  scale,  but 
to  make  it  really  adequate  to  relieve  distress  according 
to  the  circumstances  of  each  case. 

During  the  last  thirty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  fight  between  those  who  held  to  the  workhouse  test 
principle  and  those  who  opposed  it  as  harsh  and  unjust 
upon  applicants  for  relief  was  a  keen  one,  and  the  question 
was  a  "hardy  annual"  at  Poor  Law  Conferences.  The 
former  could  point  to  the  great  decrease  of  both  indoor 
and  outdoor  pauperism  which  had  followed  upon  the  prac- 
tical abolition  of  outdoor  relief,  to  the  greater  content  of 
the  wage -earning  classes,  to  the  increase  in  the  member- 
ship of  friendly  and  provident  societies,  and  to  a  stirring 
up  of  well  organized  voluntary  effort  to  help  those  who 
might  really  suffer  unjustly  under  the  policy  adopted.  And 
although  there  are  still  Unions  where  the  relief  administra- 
tion is  based  on  the  opposite  principle  of  making  outdoor 
relief  the  rule  and  indoor  relief  the  exception,  their  number 
is,  as  I  have  said,  diminishing  ;  while  those  Boards  which 
adopt  the  via  media  policy  of  relief — that  is,  taking  every 
care  to  cause  careful  inquiries  to  be  made  before  any  relief 
is  granted  at  all,  and  then  deciding  as  to  whether  it  is 
best  to  offer  relief  in  the  workhouse  or  to  give  outdoor 
relief,  and  finally  if  outdoor  relief  is  granted  to  see  that 
it  is  adequate  to  relieve  the  distress — ^now  form  the  vast 
majority.  The  statistical  results  of  such  a  policy  approach 
very  nearly  to  those  of  the  "  test  of  the  workhouse  "  policy. 
Further,  because  the  poor  themselves  can  and  do  under- 
stand and  appreciate  it,  this  system  of  careful  inquiry  before 
relief  given  is  probably  the  wisest  one  to  adopt  at  the 
present  day,  and  it  has  been  much  encouraged  and  sup- 
ported by  the  orders  and  circulars  of  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board,  which  followed  closely  upon  the  Report  of 
the  Royal  Commission.  Thus  pay -stations  have  been  done 
away  with  in  country  Unions  and  any  outdoor  reUef  is  taken 
to  the  home  ;  the  case -paper  system  has  been  generally 
established  ;  more  care  is  taken  in  the  appointment  of 
relieving  officers  ;  permanlent  relief  has  been  done  away 
with,  and  every  case  where  relief  is  given  at  the  home 
has  to  be  reconsidered  at  short  intervals. 

No  doubt  much  more  remains  to  be  done  by  Boards  of 
Guardians  to  improve  the  work  of  relief,  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  a  thange  of  authority  would  expedite  the  improve- 


304  SOCIAL"    REFORM 

ment.      In   many   Unions  it   would  be  impossible  to  better 
the   present    relief   administration,    and    their    example   and 
its    beneficial    results    act    as    a    spur    to    other    Boards    of 
Guardians  to  follow  suit.     At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the 
Poor  Law  has  more  attention  been  given  to  the  necessity 
of  close  co-operation  between  the  Poor  Law  and  voluntary 
relief  agencies  if  the  best   results  are  to  be  obtained.      It 
is   quite    common    now    for    Boards    of    Guardians    to    help 
willingly  in  cases  brought  before  them  by  such  agencies,  and 
for  these  latter  to  take  over  the  charge  of  such  cases  as 
can   be    best    dealt    with    by   them.      The    circulars    of   the 
Central    Authority    receive    attention,    and    experience    has 
shown  that  its  suggestions  for  improved  administration  are 
usually  accepted.     In  this  connection  due  recognition  must 
be    given    to    the     splendid     work    done    by    the    women 
Guardians,  whose  numbers  have  increased  steadily  year  by 
year.'      It  is  to  them  that  we  owe  many  of  the  improve- 
ments that  have  taken  place   in  both   outdoor  and  indoor 
administration — improvements   which,    while    they    miean    so 
much  to  the  recipients  of  poor  relief,  prove  to  be  economical 
in  the  result.     I  am  afraid  that  a  good  many  male  Guardians 
take  little  trouble  to  inform  themselves  about  the  law  they 
have  to  administer  and  the   best   methods  of  applying  it  ; 
but  the   first  business  a  woman  Guardian  imdertakes  after 
election    (if  she  has  not  done  so  before)  is  to  get  all  the 
information  she  can  on  the  subject.     The  best  administra- 
tion   of    the    Poor    Law    depends    largely    on    details,    and 
attention  to  these  is  a  special  peculiarity  and  virtue  of  the 
gentler  sex. 

VI.  Suggested  Lines   of   Poor  Law  Reform. 

My  readers  must,  I  think,  have  already  guessed  what 
my  solution  of  the  problem  is.  Believing  as  I  do  that 
the  present  Poor  Law  structure,  however  defective  it  may 
be  in  parts,  has  proved  itself  securely  built,  and  stood 
up  well  against  the  storms  of  criticism  to  which  it  has 
been  subjected  from  time  to  time,  I  naturally  can  see  no 
necessity  for  pulling  it  down  to  the  ground  and  rebuilding 
it  on  new  lines  altogether.  Rather  do  I  wish  to  see  any 
defects  repaired,  and  certain  buttresses  which  originally 
belonged  to   it,   but   were   removed,   rebuilt   into   its   walls - 

»  Since  1894  the  number  of  lady  Guardians  has  increased  from  169  to  nearl; 
1,600. 


UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  POOR  LAW  305 

Sir  Arthur  Downes  says  the  same  thing  in  other  words 
in  his  Memorandum  already  referred  to  :  "I  have  studied 
the  list  of  defects  on  which  the  sweeping  changes  originated 
in  the  Majority  Report  are  based.  My  experience  con- 
vinces me  that  there  is  not  one  which  could  not  be  met, 
and  I  venture  to  say  better  met,  by  a  revision,  strengthen- 
ing, and  an  extension  of  existing  powers  on  lines  already 
established.  Powers  exist  more  elastic  and  more  exten- 
sive than  the  proposals  of  the  Report,  whereby  any  exten- 
sion of  area,  any  combination  of  local  administration,  or 
any  classification  could  be  effected.  Some  revision  or 
addition  of  detail  and  a  public  mandate  are  alone  needed 
to  set  them  in  operation.  The  Report,  premising  that 
extending  areas  are  necessary,  proposes  that  the  future  area 
of  local  Poor  Law  administration  shall  be  the  county  or 
the  county  borough.  The  vast  amount  of  readjustment 
involved  in  this  will  be  realized  by  those  who  have  had 
experience  of  the  difficulties  entailed.  There  would  have 
to  be  no  less  than  225  adjustments  of  existing  properties 
and  liabilities,  involving  much  time,  trouble  and  expense, 
and  without  finality  being  secured.  Urban  districts  grow 
into  populous  places  and  may  be  organized  as  boroughs. 
Boroughs  increase  in  importance,  and  will  claim  to  rank 
as  county  boroughs.  Each  change  will  necessitate  further 
adjustments,  and  the  more  complete  the  institutional  service 
provided  by  the  administrative  county  from  which  the 
population  would  pass,  the  more  difficult  the  rearrange- 
ment would  become.  With  what  confidence  could  institu- 
tions be  established  for  so  uncertain  a  population  ?  '  The 
scheme  of  the  Report,  indeed,  is  inconsistent  with  the  object 
of  self-contained  classification,  on  which  it  is  chiefly  based. 
There  are  even  cases  in  which  the  area  would  be  reduced  ; 
the  Union  of  West  Ham,  with  a  population  in  19 10  of 
more  than  half  a  million,  would  be  replaced  by  a  county 
borough  of  only  half  the  population  of  the  dissolved  union, 
while  the  remnant  would  be  incongruously  grouped  for  relief 
purposes  with  the  sparsely  peopled  marshes  of  the  coast. 
"  At  present  there  are  ninety -two  Poor  Law  Unions,  each 
with  a  population  of  more  than  100,000.  Among  the 
administrative  counties  and  county  boroughs  by  which  it 
is  proposed  that  these  unions  should  be  replaced,  seventy- 
seven  only  have  populations  exceeding  100,000.  The 
scheme,  in  fact,  does  not  solve  the  problem  of  the  great 
'  Memorandum  by  Mr.  Charles  Booth. 
20 


3o6  SOCIAL    REFORM 

urban  populations  where  necessity  for  reform  is  greatest, 
while  it  threatens  a  maximum  of  disturbances  to  the  rural 
districts  where  the  need  is  less  pressing.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  doubted  whether  many  of  the  proposed  areas  would, 
after  all,  suffice  for  a  complete  self-contained  scheme  of 
classification  ;  some  of  them  are  manifestly  too  small  for 
moderate  or  even  elementary  requirements.  But  the 
grouping  of  county  or  county  boroughs  would  be  difficult 
or  practically  impossible  in  proportion  to  the  incongruity 
of  social  and  industrial  conditions  and  to  the  jealousies 
of  strong  municipalities.  And  thus  the  problem  of  the 
fringe  of  the  great   cities   would  still  remain." 

Sir  Arthur  Downes  appears  to  support  generally  the 
administrative  proposals  of  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  scheme  of  the  National  Committee  for 
Poor  Law  Reform  has  many  advantages  if  it  could  be 
so  amended  as  to  deal  satisfactorily  with  the  size  of  Boards 
of  Guardians,  and  to  provide  for  the  better  organization 
of  institutional  relief  by  means  of  grouping  Unions  together 
in  larger  administrative  areas  under  bodies  directly  repre- 
sentative of  the  constituent  Boards  in  those  areas.  I  have 
already  suggested  how  the  first  object  might  be  effected. 
As  to  the  second,  the  Metropolitan  Asylums  Board  has  been 
in  existence  since  1867,  and  has  proved  its  ability  in  regard 
to  dealing  with  the  sick,  the  mentally  defective,  the  homeless 
poor,  and  the  vagrant.  In  other  parts  of  the  country 
county  committees  have  been  already  formed  for  the  care 
of  mental  defectives  and  vagrants  under  special  orders  of 
the  Local  Government  Board.  These  bodies  are  carry- 
ing out  the  duties  imposed  upon  them  with  great  success, 
and  are  composed  entirely  of  Guardians  appointed  by  their 
respective  Boards  to  serve  upon  them,  the  number  of  repre- 
sentatives from  each  Union  depending  on  its  population, 
or,  in  some  cases,  on  its  assessable  value. 

There  is  no  reason  why  this  system  should  not  be 
extended  by  order  over  the  whole  country,  and,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Metropolitan  Asylums  Board,  it  might  be  wtell 
that  a  certain  number  of  additional  members  should  be 
nominated  to  serve  on  each  county  Joint  Committee  by 
the  Local  Government  Board.  There  would  still  be  plenty 
of  work  for  Boards  of  Guardians  to  do  ;  e.g.  the  decision 
as  to  how  cases  should  be  dealt  with,  the  inquiries  which 
would  influence  this  decision,  and  the  whole  control  of 
outdoor   and   ordinary    indoor    relief.      Unnecessary   work- 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF    THE    POOR   LAW     307 

houses  and  casual  wards  cx)uld  be  done  away  with,  and, 
if  thought  well,  classification  by  means  of  the  remaining 
ones  carried  out.  In  the  case  of  a  workhouse  which  had 
been  done  away  with  in  any  Union,  the  Guardians  of  that 
Union  might,  if  it  were  necessary  for  good  relief  administra- 
tion, become  an  outdoor  relief  Committee  for  the  Union 
and  do  all  the  preliminary  work  of  deciding  for  what 
applicants  the  discipline  and  treatment  in  an  institution  was 
necessary.  The  principle  of  the  Common  Poor  Fund,  with 
any  necessary  modifications,  could  be  applied  to  each  com- 
bined district,  as  is  done  in  London,  and  any  Government 
grants  could  be  administered  by  means  of  it.  As  each 
district  might  contain  both  Urban  and  Rural  Unions,  the 
expenses  would  be  fairly  equalized  over  it. 

If  the  result  were,  as  it  would  undoubtedly  be,  to  make 
a  Board  of  Guardians  very  careful  in  its  outdoor  relief 
administration,  this  would  be  all  to  the  good.  If  such 
Joint  Committees  as  are  suggested  were  generally  estab- 
lished, it  would  be  possible  for  public  relief  of  every  kind 
to  be  placed  under  one  Public  Relief  Authority.  The  only 
possible  exception,  although  I  cannot  see  any  good  reason 
for  its  being  made,  might  be  the  granting  of  old  age 
pensions.  Parliament  has  decided  that  they  are  not  to  be 
considered  as  rehef  but  as  a  right  in  return  for  national 
service,  just  as  the  soldier  or  sailor  gets  his  pension,  and 
it  is  perhaps  too  late  to  draw  back  now.  But  the  care  of 
limatics  and  mental  defectives,  of  whom  the  vast  majority 
are  at  present  chargeable  to  the  Poor  Law  and  proper 
persons  for  it  to  deal  with,  the  feeding  and  medical  treat- 
ment of  necessitous  children  in  the  elementary  schools,  the 
relief  work  now  performed  by  the  Public  Health  Authori- 
ties, and  the  dealing  with  the  unemployed  and  vagrants 
might  well  be  placed  under  tbedr  control. 

The  advantages  of  bringing  all  public  reUef  imder  one 
Central  Authority  are  so  great  that  it  might  be  well  to 
repeal  the  law  which  disenfranchises  certain  classes  of  those 
who  receive  it.  It  is  well  known  that  this  law  is  often 
broken  and  quite  impossible  to  enforce  completely.  It  is 
very  doubtful  whether  it  is  really  preventive.  But  of  course 
the  recipient  of  relief,  if  allowed  to  exercise  the  parlia- 
mentary vote,  would  not  be  permitted  to  use  it  in  the  local 
elections  of  the  authorities  from  whom  he  receives  relief. 
The  removal  of  the  disqualification  for  the  parliamentary 
vote  would  go  far  to  get  rid  of  that  stupid  phrase   "  the 


3o8  SOCIAL    REFORM 

stigma  of  pauperism,"  which  sounds  so  grand  and  means 
so  little. 

If  it  were  thought  well  to  substitute  the  words  "  Public 
Assistance  "  for  "  Poor  Relief,"  by  all  means  let  it  be 
done.  We  have  already  "  Institutions  "  in  the  place  of 
'*  Workhouses,"  and  no  one  can  say  that  they  have  become 
more  popular  in  consequence. 

Vagrancy. 

The  Departmental  Committee  on  Vagrancy,  which  issued 
its  report  in  February  1906,  a  few  months  after  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws,  recom- 
mended that  the  care  and  control  of  vagrants  should  be 
transferred  from  the  Board  of  Guardians  to  the  police 
authorities  and  that  detention  colonies  should  be  estab- 
lished for  habitual  vagrants.  The  whole  subject  has  been 
exhaustively  and  well  dealt  with  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Dawson 
in  his  book  "  The  Vagrancy  Problem."  '  If  Joint  Poor 
Law  Committees  were  established,  as  suggested  above,  the 
care  and  control  of  vagrants  could  be  committed  to  them. 
Boards  of  Guardians  have  already  combined  in  certain  parts 
of  the  country,  mainly  for  working  what  is  known  as  the 
Way  and  Food  Ticket  system  which  was  recommended  by 
the  Departmental  Committee,  and  they  are  already  seeking 
powers  for  the  sake  of  securing  mor'e  uniformity  in  the 
treatment  of  vagrants  than  at  present  exists,  to  enable 
the  shutting  down  of  unnecessary  casual  wards  in  their 
district  and  the  spreading  of  the  relief  expenses  over  those 
areas  so  that  each  Union,  whether  it  has  casual  wards  or 
not,  will  bear  its  fair  share  of  the  burden.  These  Vagrancy 
Committees  would,  of  course,  be  merged  in  the  Joint  Poor 
Law  Committees  when  established.  The  success  of  this 
plan  has  been  illustrated  by  what  has  been  done  in  London. 
There  the  Metropolitan  Asylums  Board  took  over  twenty - 
four  casual  wards  in  19 12,  when  the  number  of  vagrants 
relieved  (ist  January  191 2)  was  936,  and,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Homeless  Poor  Committee  (an  Advisory  Com- 
mittee consisting  of  representatives  of  official  bodies  and 
charitable  agencies  in  the  Metropolis),  had  by  191 6  reduced 
the  number  of  wards  to  seven  and  the  number  of  vagrants 
relieved  to    108    (24th  December    191 5). 

It  would  be  useful  to  have  a  penal  colony  under  State 
'  Published  by  P.  S.  King  &  Son,  1910. 


UNSOLVED    PROBLEMS    OF    THE    POOR    LAW     309 

control  for  detention  of  those  vagrants  who  have  been  con- 
victed of  vagrancy  offences — say,  three  or  four  times  in 
one  year — the  order  of  detention  to  be  made  by  Quarter 
Sessions.  It  is  at  present  difficult  for  the  police  to  prove 
previous  convictions  of  vagrants,  so  as  to  make  the  fear 
of  detention  really  deterrent,  but  by  the  introduction  of 
the  finger-print  system,  as  recommended  by  the  Depart- 
mental Committee,  the  difficulty  would  be  removed. 

Settlement  and  Removal. 

The  Majority  Report  of  the  Poor  Law  Commission  did 
not  find  much  fault  with  the  present  system  of  settlement 
and  removal,  although  they  thought  that  it  could  be  simpli- 
fied if  the  County  and  County  Boroughs  were  made  the 
area  for  all  persons,  if  the  forms  of  settlement  were  reduced 
to  four — births,  parentage,  marriage,  and  residence,  if  the 
settlement  were  acquired  by  one  year's  residence  in  the 
new  area,  if  the  Local  Government  Board  determined 
all  cases  of  disputed  settlement  other  than  those  which 
it  considered  more  suitable  to  be  decided  in  a  court  of 
law,  and  if  there  wiere  reciprocity  of  removal  between 
the  United  Kingdoms. 

It  is,  I  think,  clear  that  with  the  substitution  of 
District  areas  for  the  proposed  County  and  County  Borough 
areas  the  above  suggestions  could  all  be  carried  out.  But 
of  course  there  are  very  strong  arguments  for  doing  away 
with  the  law  of  removal  altogether,  as  has  been  so  often 
recommended  by  experts  both  past  and  present. 

Conclusion. 

It  has  been  my  object  in  writing  this  article  to  try  to 
show  how  the  English  Poor  Law  system  might  be 
strengthened  and  fortified,  while  leaving  it  still  subject 
to  democratic  control  as  at  present.  On  the  whole.  Boards 
of  Guardians  do  their  work  well  with  the  help  of  good 
officers.  They  would  be  assisted  to  do  their  work  better, 
in  my  opinion,  if  the  combinations  of  Boards  were  carried 
out  as  suggested.  I  believe  that  this  moderate  reform 
would  work  economically  because  it  would  bring  all  public 
relief  work  under  one  authority,  instead  of  under  different 
authorities,  and  I  do  not  think  that  anything  more  is 
wanted.     There  are  of  course  many  questions  which  space 


3IO  SOCIAL    REFORM 

does  not  allow  me  to  deal  with,  but  they  could  be  worked 
easily  into  the  framework.  The  better  organization  of 
charitable  effort  is  outside  the  purview  of  my  article,  but 
it  is  of  course  absolutely  necessary  that,  in  this  case,  the 
one  hand  should  know  what  the  other  doeth.  The  better 
charity  is  organized,  the  more  easy  will  it  be  to  secure 
that  close  co-operation  between  public  and  private  effort, 
between  legal  and  voluntary  charity,  which  will  ensure  the 
best  relief  work. 

Those  who  now  abuse  our  Poor  Law  system,  which 
curiously  enough  has  been  so  praised  by  foreign  critics 
of  our  institutions — and  outsiders  are  said  to  see  most  of 
the  game — are  those  who  know  least  about  it  and  the 
work  it  has  to  do.  One  must  always  remember  that  the 
Poor  Law  is  the  Cinderella  of  the  social  family.  It  has 
to  deal  with  cases  such  as  no  other  body  or  organization 
will  touch.  This  is  often  forgotten.  It  is  often  said  that 
the  Poor  Law  is  only  repressive  and  not  preventive,  that 
it  can  only  relieve  the  destitute  and  not  the  poor.  But 
the  word  "  Destitution  "  has  a  much  more  extensive  mean- 
ing. As  pointed  out  in  the  Circular  of  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board  of  the  i8th  March  1910  on  the  administration 
of  outdoor  relief,  "  a  person  may  be  destitute  in  respect  of 
the  want  of  some  particular  necessity  of  life  without  being 
destitute  in  all  respects,  as,  for  instance,  a  person  who  is 
not  destitute  in  the  sense  that  he  is  entirely  devoid  of  the 
means  of  subsistence  may  yet  be  destitute  in  that  he  is 
tmable  to  provide  for  himself  the  particular  form  of  m'edical 
attendance  or  treatment  of  which  he  is  in  urgent  need." 
This  shows,  I  think,  what  a  power  of  prevention  is  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Poor  Law  administrators. 

I  venture  to  say  that  our  Poor  Law  institutions,  taken 
as  a  whole,  will  bear  the  closest  inspection.  I  only  wish 
that  the  general  public  knew  more  about  them.  If  they 
did,  the  attacks  made  upon  the  system  would  become  very 
feeble.  The  system  is  fundamentally  a  sound  one,  and 
I  believe  that  it  has  helped  to  preserve  "  the  liberty  of  the 
subject  "  in  a  way  which  those  who  believe  in  the  thing 
often  do  not  appreciate.  Only  those  who  love  bureau- 
cratic interference  with  this  liberty  are  really  its  foes. 


IV 

NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND 
TAXATION 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

National    Taxation    after   the   War 

/.    THE  APPROPRIATE  DISTRIBUTION 
OF  ITS  BURDEN 

By  Professor  ALFRED   MARSHALL 

Aspirations  for  social  betterment,  which  were  growing  fast 
before  the  war,  have  been  strengthened  by  the  community 
of  life  of  men  of  all  classes  in  the  trenches.  But  their 
development  and  realization,  when  the  war  has  passed  and 
its  debris  have  cleared  away,  will  be  to  some  extent 
hampered  by  the  destruction  of  capital  and  the  necessity 
for  raising  a  very  large  public  Reven,ue  to  pay  interest  on 
the  National  Debt  and  for  other  purposes.  The  aim  of 
this  chapter  is  to  inquire  how  that  revenue  may  be 
obtained  with   the  least   hardship  and  the  least   waste. 

It  is  concerned  almost  exclusively  with  the  economic 
aspects  of  the  problem.  But  Adam  Smith's  enthusiastic 
loyalty  to  the  British  race  led  him  to  the  daring  proposal, 
that  when  the  British  Colonies  in  North  America  had  over- 
taken and  surpassed  the  Mother  Country  in  wealth  and 
strength,  the  seat  of  the  Central  Government  of  the  Empire 
should  migrate  across  the  Atlantic.  And  a  humble  follower 
of  his  may  venture  to  apply  his  principles  to  the  new 
problems,  which  have  arisen  out  of  the  co-operation  of 
Britain's  remaining  Dependencies  with  her  in  resistance  to 
Germany's  truculent  execution  of  the  long-prepared  assault 
on  the  liberties  of  her  neighbours. 

I.  Britain's   diminished   resources  and  increased    burden    of 

TAXATION    after    THE    WAR. 

Before  the  war  Britain   had   exceptional  freedom  in  her 

choice  of  taxes  :    she  did  not  need  to  force  any  of  them 

313 


314      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

up  to  a  point  at  which  its  pressure  would  be  very  painful. 
But  after  the  war  she  must  force  many  of  those  taxes, 
which  she  has  judged  to  be  most  suitable  to  her  conditions, 
up  to  points  at  which  their  pressure  will  cause  consider- 
able hurt,  both  direct  and  indirect.  In  order  to  keep  this 
hurt  within  moderate  limits,  she  must  make  some  use  of 
other  taxes,  which  are  less  suitable  to  her  conditions,  and 
are  technically  inferior  to  those  which  used  to  suffice  for 
her  needs. 

It  is  true  that  the  increased  energy  of  all,  and  the 
increased  economy  of  many,  have  enabled  her  to  obtain 
from  her  own  people  nearly  all  the  funds  that  she  has 
needed  for  the  war  on  her  own  account,  as  distinguished 
from  those  which  she  has  incurred  on  behalf  of  her  Allies 
and  Dependencies.  But  this  vast  internal  borrowing  is 
not  merely  a  transfer  from  one  hand  to  another  ;  pro- 
ductive capital  has  been  converted  into  appliances 
for  destroying  the  enemy  and  saving  Britain,  and 
indeed  the  civilized  world,  from  calamity.  The  conver- 
sion was  inevitable,  but  the  fact  must  be  faced  that 
it  involves  the  destruction  of  a  vast  amount  of 
capital,  that  would  otherwise  have  been  available  for 
production. 

This  capital  has  been  annexed  for  the  war,  partly  by 
the  sale  of  securities  in  neutral  markets  ;  partly  by  the 
depletion  of  the  stocks  of  goods  held  abroad  at  the  charge 
of  British  exporters  and  others  ;  partly  by  suspension  of 
the  normal  replacement  of  wear  and  tear  of  business  plant 
of  all  kinds,  including  such  things  as  railway  rolling  stock  ; 
of  domestic  appliances  of  all  sorts  and  of  houses,  buildings, 
etc.  In  addition  to  these  direct  losses  the  country  is  poorer 
than  she  otherwise  would  have  been  by  the  savings  which 
she  normally  devotes  to  investments  abroad,  and  to  ex- 
tending her  own  stock  of  material  capital — fixed  and 
movable  of  all  kinds.  But  against  this  must  be  put  the 
value  for  peace  purposes  of  buildings,  etc.,  set  up  for 
the  purposes  of  the  war  ;  and  that  of  the  products  avail- 
able for  home  consumption  or  for  the  export  trade, 
which  are  due  to  the  increased  energies  of  men  and 
women,  working  under  the  stimulus  of  their  country's 
need. I  i     ^     '  ,       i       '  '        '  !'    1  '^ 

'  The  energies  of  munition-workers,  like  those  of  actual  combatants,  yield 
their  fruits  in  making  for  victory  ;  and  their  products  do  not  enter  into  the  calcu- 
lation here.     But  reckoning  has  already  been  made  for  all  the  expense  to  which 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER    THE    WAR      315 

If  we  look  beyond  material  wealth,  something  must  be 
allowed  for  the  new  energy,  the  new  perception  of  the 
importance  and  the  methods  of  organization  and 
standardization,  which  we  have  acquired.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  loss  of  the  multitudes  of  men  in  the  prime  of 
life,  who  are  dead  or  maimed,  is  a  destruction  of  national 
capital . 

It  is  not  possible  to  forecast  the  national  Revenue  that 
must  be  raised  after  the  war  from  sources  thus  narrowed. 
But  it  will  certainly  be  more  than  £m.400  ;  that 
is,  more  than  twice  as  much  as  before  the  war,  and 
possibly  much  more.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  any 
indemnity  which  can  be  got  from  the  impoverished  Central 
Powers  will  go  to  the  desolated  provinces  of  Belgium, 
France,  Serbia,  Poland,  and  Rumania  ;  and  the  expenses 
of  demobilization  will  absorb  a  great  part  of  the  value 
of  the  Government  property  set  up  during  the  war.  The 
National  Debt,  Funded  and  Unfunded,  at  the  end  of  the  war 
may  therefore  be  taken  provisionally  at  £m. 3,000  (i.e.  three 
thousand  million  pounds)  ;  it  seems  likely  to  exceed  that 
sum.  The  interest  on  this  at  5  per  cent,  will  be  £m.i5o. 
The  expenditure  on  the  services  of  defence  on  the  sea  and 
under  the  sea,  on  the  land  and  in  the  air,  seem  unlikely  to 
be  less  than  £m.ioo  :  they  were  £m.77  in  1913-14. 
Under  ordinary  conditions  2  per  cent,  of  the  Debt  ought 
to  be  paid  off  annually  if  the  country  is  to  be  in  a  good 
position  to  meet  any  emergencies  that  may  arise  during 
the  next  fifty  years  ;  but  as  £m.45  are  expected  to  be 
needed  for  war  pensions,  which  are  in  effect  but  partial 
repayments  of  obligations  that  the  country  has  incurred 
towards  those  who  have  fought  for  her,  it  may  be  suffi- 
cient to  set  aside  £m.8o  for  pensions,  together  with  repay- 
ment of  the  Debt  ;  the  pensions  will  of  course  gradually 
dwindle  as  the  beneficiaries  pass  away.  If  this  is  done 
bravely  and  steadfastly,  and  peace  is  preserved,  the  Debt 
may  be  converted  to  a  4^  per  cent,  or  even  a  4  per  cent, 
basis.  We  will  assume  the  charges  for  interest  on  it  to 
fall    to    4|    per    cent. — i.e.    £m.i35.      ^^    this    basis    the 

the  Government  has  been  put  in  paying  their  wages  and  salaries  and  in  pro- 
viding for  their  needs ;  and  therefore  we  must  not  count  the  whole  value  of 
the  services,  which  they  would  have  rendered  in  time  of  peace,  as  lost  by  the 
war  :  we  must  count  only  the  excess  of  the  value  of  those  services  over  the 
wages  and  other  payments  which  would  have  been  made  in  connection  with 
them,  if  peace  had  been  unbroken. 


31 6      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

Revenue  needed  for  expenses  connected  with  war  will  be 
£m.  135 -}-  loo -f  80 — i.e.   £m.3i5.i 

There  must  be  further  added  £.m.75  at  least  for  net 
expenditure  on  services  other  than  those  of  Defence  and 
the  Debt,  as  in  191 3-14.  One  item  of  this  amount  was 
£m.io,  paid  over  to  Local  Taxation  account.  Nearly 
£m.40  were  taken  by  the  "  Social  Services  " — Education, 
Old  Age  Pensions,  Labour  Exchanges,  etc.  ;  whereas  five 
years  earlier  they  claimed  only  half  that  sum.  Their  just 
demands  will  not  shrink  ;  they  will  increase  continuously. 
A  small  portion  of  the  £m.390  thus  reached  will  be 
covered,  as  before,  by  income  from  Crown  Lands,  etc.  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  expenses  of  collecting  the 
Revenue  from  taxes,  etc.,  will  increase  with  their  volume. 
Thus  we  must  frankly  face  the  fact  that,  even  if  hostilities 
cease  in  the  autumn  of  1917,  our  taxes  will  be  required  to 
yield  more  than  twice  the  greatest  Revenue  hitherto 
obtained  from  them  in  the  past.  If  things  go  badly,  very 
much  more  than  this  will  be  needed. 

The  brilliant,  though  gravely  chequered,  success  which 
the  Government  has  attained  during  the  war  in  the  direction 
and  control  of  some  industries  has  fostered  the  fond 
imagination  that  Government  business  may  be  a  sourco 
of  large  Revenue.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  many 
of  those  business  men,  as  well  as  those  scientific  experts, 
whose  energy,  ability,  and  strength  of  character  best  fit 
them  to  direct  great  undertakings  and  pioneer  new  ways, 
are  now  in  the  service  of  Government  ;  and  many  of  the 
rest  are  giving  some  of  their  best  energies  and  resources, 
for  little  or  no  remuneration,  to  the  Government  ;  and  their 
imported  energy  has  swept  away  the  cobwebs  of  many 
Government  Departments.  Also  the  Government  has  reaped 
the  economics  of  massive  standardized  production  by 
numerous  unskilled  workers,  guided  by  a  relatively  small 
number  of  skilled  workers,  on  a  scale  which  had  never  been 
approached  till  within  the  last  two  years  in  any  country  in 
the  world.  But  all  this  aflfords  no  indication  that  it  is  likely 
to  pioneer  progress  and  economy  in  industry  in  time  of  peace 
by  superseding  independent  industry. 

When  considering  the  real  burden  that  will  be  thus 
imposed  on  the  country  in  the  future,  som'ething  must  be 

*  The  ^above'  account  omits  the  ;f  m.24  spent  on  Postal  services  in  1913-14  : 
for  they  more  than  paid  theirjway,  and  they  may  be  made  a  source  of  additional 
net  revenue'after  the  war, 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE    WAR     317 

said  as  to  the  probable  future  of  prices.  The  rise  in 
prices  during  the  war  has  been  caused  partly  by  bad 
harvests  ;  partly  by  the  destruction  of  factories  and  the 
closing  of  mines,  etc.,  in  Belgium  and  elsewhere,  and  by 
the  destruction  and  internment  of  ships,  etc.  ;  and  partly 
by  purely  monetary  causes.  Gold  has  been  sent  to  America 
and  other  neutral  countries,  and  has  stimulated  a  rise  of 
prices  there  ;  while  in  some  of  the  countries  at  war  there 
has  been  a  greatly  extended  use  of  paper  currencies  and 
cheques.  Also  the  feverish  urgency  of  the  demand  for  the 
necessaries  of  war  has  raised  money  wages,  and  thus  stimu- 
lated a  rise  of  prices. 

Peace  will  bring  prices  down  :  but  probably  not  to  their 
old  level.  In  that  case  Governmient  will  have  to  pay  more 
money  than  before  for  goods  and  for  services.  But  the 
money  incomes,  and  the  money  values  of  things  on  which 
taxes  are  levied,  will  be  higher  also:  and  as  the  money  pay- 
able as  interest  on  the  Debt  will  not  be  increased,  the  burden 
on  the  Exchequer  will  be  rather  less  than  if  prices  fell. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  continued  rise  of  prices  would  tend 
to  sustain  a  high  rate  of  interest  and  to  increase  the  diffi- 
culty of  converting  the  Debt  on  the  basis  of  lower  rates 
than  those  at  which  it  has  been  incurred. 

2.    A   SEARCH    FOR     THE     LEAST    DETRIMENTAL    DISTRIBUTION    OF    THE 
FUTURE   HEAVY   BURDEN    OF   TAXATION. 

Until  recently  "  equity  "  was  thought  an  adequate  guide 
in  the  philosophy  of  taxation  :  and  it  was  generally  con- 
sidered equitable  that  every  one  should  contribute  "  on 
the  joint -stock  plan  "  to  the  expenses  of  the  State  in  pro- 
portion to  the  income  (or,  as  was  sometimes  said,  the 
property)  which  he  enjoyed  under  it.  But  further  con- 
sideration showed  that  while  a  joint -stock  company  has 
no  responsibility  for  the  number  of  shares  which  each 
individual  holds  in  it,  the  duty  of  the  State  is  of  larger 
scope.  For  equity  proceeds  on  the  basis  of  existing  rights, 
as  generally  recognized:  and,  though  a  joint -stock  com- 
pany must  accept  them  as  final,  the  State  is  under  obligation 
to  go  behind  them  ;  to  inquire  which  of  them  are  based 
on  convention  or  accident  rather  than  fundamental  moral 
principle  ;  and  to  use  its  powers  for  promoting  such 
economic  and  social  adjustments  as  will  make  for  the  well- 
being  of  the  people  at  large.     A  chief  place  among  those 


3i8      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

powers  is  held  by  its  control  of  the  distribution  of  the 
burden  of  taxation.  The  notion  that  this  distribution  should 
be  governed  by  mere  equity  remained  dominant  till  late 
in  the  nineteenth  century  ;  but,  when  the  war  began,  the 
tide  was  in  full  swing  towards  the  notion  that  the  problem 
is  one  of  constructive  ethics  ;  though,  of  course,  on  its 
technical  side  it  calls  for  careful  economic  and  political 
thought. 

This  new  notion  is  indeed  largely  based  on  observations 
which  were  certainly  made  two  thousand  years  ago,  and 
probably  much  earlier,  that  the  happiness  of  the  rich  does 
not  exceed  that  of  the  poor  nearly  in  proportion  to  the 
difference  in  their  commands  of  material  wealth.  Sages 
have  indeed  frequently  asserted  that  happiness  is  a  product 
of  healthy  activity,  family  affection,  and  content  ;  and  that 
it  is  as  often  to  be  found  in  the  cottage  as  in  the  mansion. 
But  yet  a  lack  of  the  necessaries  of  life  causes  positive 
suffering,  which  transcends  in  a  way  the  lack  of  happi- 
ness ;  and  therefore  taxes,  which  trench  on  the  necessaries 
of  life  at  the  command  of  any  stratum  of  sober,  hard- 
working people,  stand  in  a  class  by  themselves. 

Again,  though  the  upper  strata  of  society  do  not  enjoy 
an  excess  of  happiness  over  the  lower  strata  at  all  pro- 
portionate to  their  superiority  in  incomes,  yet  almost  every 
one  derives  considerable  pleasure  from  an  increase  of  his 
income,  and  suffers  annoyance  from  its  diminution.  For 
the  increase  gratifies,  and  the  diminution  disappoints,  the 
hope  of  some  enjoyment  or  of  some  ambition  which  is 
near  in  sight.  In  the  one  case  the  man  feels  himself 
rising  in  that  social  stratum  to  which  he  is  accustomed  : 
the  stratum  which  knows  him,  and  which  he  knows  ;  the 
stratum  whose  wants  and  thoughts  and  aspirations  are 
kindred  to  his  own.  A  clerk  is  made  proud  and  happy 
when  he  can  move  from  a  working-class  quarter  to  one 
in  which  untidy  clothes  are  not  seen  ;  but  he  does  not  fret 
at  being  unable  to  move  into  a  fashionable  quarter:  he 
is  grieved  if  unable  to  take  his  family  to  the  seaside  for 
their  wonted  two  or  three  weeks  ;  but  he  does  not  greatly 
repine  at  being  unable  to  travel  round  the  world. 

These  considerations  point  to  the  conclusion  that,  while 
anti-social  excess  in  the  consumption  of  alcohol  by  any 
class  is  rightly  subject  to  heavier  taxation,  those  who  apply 
practically  the  whole  of  a  very  small  family  income  to 
good   uses    should   make   little   or   no    net   contribution   to 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE    WAR     319 

the  Revenue.  It  will  not  be  possible  to  exempt  from  taxa- 
tion all  the  things  consumed  by  them  :  but  the  greater 
part  of  what  they  contribute  directly  to  the  Exchequer 
should  be  returned  to  them  indirectly  by  generous  expendi- 
ture from  public  funds,  imperial  and  local,  for  their  special 
or  even  exclusive  benefit.  The  ever-growing  outlay  on 
popular  education,  old  age  pensions,  insurance,  etc.,  is 
an  expression  of  the  public  conscience  needed  to  palliate 
extreme  inequalities  of  wealth,  while  yet  enabling  even 
the  poorest  class  of  genuine  workers  to  remain  full,  free 
citizens,  with  a  direct  interest  in  public  finance.  Their 
life  is  an  integral  part  of  the  national  life.  If  all  were 
equal  in  wealth  and  other  matters,  national  life  would  be 
something  more  than  the  aggregate  of  the  lives  of  its 
individual  members,  and  all  would  need  to  make  sacri- 
fices for  it.  As  things  are,  while  all  must  suffer,  and 
if  needs  be  die,  in  time  of  war  for  the  national  life  ;  the 
purses  of  the  well-to-do  alone  can  be  expected  to  con- 
tribute largely  to  its  expenses  in  time  of  peace.  To  do 
so  is  merely  good  business  :    it  is  not  charity. 

We  may  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  though  as 
much  personal  hurt  is  caused  by  taking  £1,000  from  an 
income  of  £10,000  as  by  taking  £20  from  an  income  of 
£200 — a  matter  on  which  opinions  differ — yet  the  hurt 
caused  by  obtaining  £1,000  of  additional  Revenue  by  means 
of  levies  of  £20  from  each  of  fifty  incomes  of  £200  is 
unquestionably  greater  than  that  caused  by  taking  it  from 
a  single  income  of  £10,000.  For  the  fact  is  becoming 
ever  more  prominent  to  the  minds  of  those  who  are  not 
specially  well-to-do  ;  and  it  may  be  a  source  of  some 
peril  to  the  country,  especially  in  view  of  the  large  Revenue 
that  wiU  be  needed  after  the  war,  unless  careful  account 
be  taken  of  the  extent  to  which  excessive  taxes  on  capital 
react  indirectly  on  the  people  at  large.  While  special  pro- 
vision is  made  for  those  whose  incomes  fall  short  of  the 
necessaries  of  life  and  vigour,  every  one  else  must  bear  a 
considerable  share  of  the  national  burdens  ;  but  the  shares 
must  be  graduated  very  steeply. 

We  shall  see  that  this  can  be  effected  only  by  a  very 
large  use  of  taxes  on  income  and  property.  No  approach 
towards  it  has  been  attained  by  taxes  on  particular  com- 
modities ;  for  indeed  many  such  taxes  press  with  the 
heaviest  weight  on  the  poorest  classes,  and  with  no  appre- 
ciable weight  on  the  rich  ;    while  those  which  fall  chiefly 


320      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

on  the  consumption  of  the  rich  have  never  been  made  to 
yield  any  large  Revenue. 

3.  Extensions  of  the  graduation  of  the  income-tax. 

In  earlier  times  nearly  the  whole  of  most  people's 
incomes  was  derived  from  operations  known  to  their  neigh- 
bours, and  a  large  understatement  of  income  was  not  likely 
to  escape  detection.  But  modern  methods  of  investment 
and  other  causes  had  made  it  almost  impossible  to  detect 
fraudulent  understatements,  imtil  the  plan,  now  famihar, 
was  adopted  of  taxing  at  the  source  all  British  corporate 
incomes  ;  while  incomes  from  Stock  exchange  securities 
issued  abroad  are  now  in  effect  brought  under  the  same 
discipline  by  aid  of  the  agencies  of  the  money  market. 
This  has  enabled  the  Inland  Revenue  officials  to  give  most 
of  their  attention  to  the  intricacies  of  small  private 
businesses,  a  task  in  which  their  methods  have  greatly 
improved.  Thus  the  percentage  of  income  demanded  by 
the  tax  rose  long  ago  much  above  that  which  it  had 
originally  been  thought  possible  to  charge  with  tolerable 
safety,  unless  during  the  emergency  of  a  war  ;  and  yet 
the  evasions  are  believed  to  have  become  relatively  small. 
This  plan,  however,  increases  the  difficulties  of  direct 
graduation  of  the  burden  of  the  tax :  so  recourse  is  now 
had  to  the  indirect  method  of  allowing  certain  abatements 
to  be  made  from  small  incomes  before  they  are  assessed 
to  the  tax. 

In  order  to  carry  the  graduation  above  the  limit  at  which 
no  abatement  was  made  a  Super -tax  was  introduced  in 
1909,  surcharging  all  very  large  incomes.  The  collec- 
tion of  that  tax  derives  little  aid  from  the  practice  of 
charging  at  the  source  ;  but,  as  the  number  of  incomes 
which  come  under  it  is  small,  the  officials  can  give  a 
good  deal  of  time  to  each  of  them.  The  great  increases 
in  the  income-tax  and  Super-tax  levied  during  the  war, 
together  with  the  Excess -profits-tax,  while  throwing  no 
direct  light  on  the  probable  course  of  taxation  after  the 
war,  suggest  a  hope  that  the  various  advances  towards 
graduation  made  before  it,  will  be  sustained  and  developed 
after  it.  In  so  far  as  the  graduation  is  effected  by  abate- 
ments, people  have  a  direct  interest  in  submitting  state- 
ments of  their  incomes  in  detail  to  the  income-tax  officials  : 
and  in  this  way  graduation  tends  to  promote  the  accuracy 
of  income-tax  returns  and  to  diminish  evasions. 


NATIONAL   TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     32 1 

The  exceptional  power  of  adjustmient  to  special  con- 
ditions possessed  by  the  income-tax  extends  some  way  in 
the  direction  of  taking  account  of  the  fact  that  two  persons 
with  equal  incomes  may  have  to  bear  very  unequal  burdens. 
Thus  insurance  premiums  are  deducted,  subject  to  certain 
conditions,  from  income  before  taxation  :  and  some  further 
deductions,  which  might  advantageously  be  enlarged,  are 
made  on  account  of  young  children.  There  is  much  to  be 
said  for  the  present  plan  of  regarding  the  incomes  of 
husband  and  wife  as  a  single  unit  for  taxation  :  but  the 
charge  levied  on  that  unit  should  be  less  than  if  it  had  to 
support  only  one  person. 

This  inequality  between  the  burdens  of  taxation  on  two 
persons  with  equal  incomes,  but  unequal  responsibilities, 
extends  below  the  income-tax  paying  class  ;  but  it  is  only 
in  that  class  that  a  direct  remedy  is  in  sight.  Among  the 
working  classes  especially  an  unmarried  man  is  likely  to 
consume  highly  taxed  alcohol  and  tobacco  in  greater  quan- 
tities than  a  married  man  with  an  equal  income  ;  but  in 
regard  to  most  taxed  commodities  the  married  man's 
expenditure  is  likely  to  be  the  larger.  It  is  true  that 
the  married  operative  is  likely  to  derive  more  aid  than 
the  unmarried  from  public  expenditures  on  health  insurance 
and  on  schools.  But  unfortunately,  though  the  education 
given  by  the  subsidized  schools  is  often  at  least  as  good 
as  that  afforded  by  relatively  expensive  private  schools, 
even  the  lower  middle  classes  are  induced  by  convention 
to  hold  aloof  from  them   in  this  country. 

If  it  were  possible  to  exempt  from  the  income-tax  that 
part  of  income  which  is  saved,  to  become  the  source  of 
future  capital,  while  leaving  property  to  be  taxed  on 
inheritance  and  in  some  other  ways  ;  then  an  income-tax 
graduated  with  reference  to  its  amount,  and  the  number 
of  people  who  depe-nded  for  their  support  on  each  income, 
would  achieve  the  apparently  impossible  result  of  being 
a  graduated  tax  on  aU.  personal  expenditure.  Rich  land 
poor  alike  would  be  left  to  select  those  uses  of  their  incomes 
which  suited  them  best,  without  interference  from  the  State, 
except  in  so  far  as  any  particular  form  of  expenditure  might 
be  thought  specially  beneficial,  or  specially  detrimental,  to 
public  interests.  The  income-tax  would  then  levy  the  same 
percentage  on  the  rich  man's  expenditure  on  coarse  tea 
and  on  fine  tea,  on  bread  and  on  expensive  food  ;  and 
a,  higher  percentage  on  each  than  on  the  poor  man's  ex- 

21 


322      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

penditure  on  anything,  unless  it  be  alcohol  and  tobacco. 
The  way  to  this  ideal  perfection  ,is  difficult  ;  but  it  is  more 
clearly  marked  than  in  regard  to  most  Utopian  goals. 

In  pursuing  it  a  watchful  eye  must  of  course  be  kept 
on  the  danger  that  excessive  taxes  on  large  incomes  may 
check  energy  and  enterprise.  It  is  true  that  a  man  of 
high  genius  and  originating  faculty  often  values  his  gains 
less  for  their  own  sake,  than  for  the  evidence  which  they 
afford  to  himself  and  others  of  eminent  power.  His 
energy  would  not  be  much  affected  by  a  tax  which  lowered 
his  share,  provided  it  did  not  put  him  at  a  disadvantage 
relatively  to  others.  The  zeal  of  a  yachtsman  in  a  race 
is  not  lessened  whan  an  unusually  imfavourable  tide  retards 
the  progress  of  all  ;  and  so  the  business  man  of  high 
faculty  would  not  be  much  less  eager  for  success,  if  taxa- 
tion took  from  him  and  his  compeers  a  considerable 
portion  of .  their   gains . 

But  the  average  man  desires  wealth  almost  exclusively  for 
its  own  sake  ;  though  some  Little  introspection  might  suggest 
to  him  that  what  he  really  cares  for  is  an  increase  in  wealth 
relatively  to  his  neighbours:  and  thus  the  problems  of  a 
steeply  graduated  income-tax  run  into  those  of  graduated 
taxes  on  capital. 

4.  Limitations  of  the  scope  of  taxes  on  capital. 

Heavy  taxes  on  capital,  of  course,  tend  to  check  its 
growth  and  to  accelerate  its  emigration.  It  is  to  Britain's 
credit  that  she  was  able  to  export  a  great  deal  of  it  before 
the  war  :  but,  if  her  factories  had  been  equipped  with  as 
generous  a  supply  of  machinery  as  those  of  America,  her 
industries  would  probably  have  been  more  productive  than 
they  were  ;  and  if  she  is  to  hold  her  place  in  the  van 
of  industry  after  the  war,  she  will  need  much  new  capital 
for  her  own  use.  Her  natural  resources,  except  in  coal 
and  a  favourable  coastline,  are  small  ;  and  a  chief  cause 
of  the  superiority  of  the  wages  of  her  workpeople  over 
those  in  other  countries  of  Europe  has  been  the  fact  that 
her  businesses  could  obtain  the  necessary  supply  of  capital 
at  lower  charges  than  anywhere  else.  Therefore  taxes  on 
capital  must  be  handled  with   caution. 

So  far  as  the  rights  of  property  have  a  "  natural  "  and 
"  indefeasible  "  basis,  the  first  place  is  to  be  attached  to 
that  property  which  any  one  has  made  or  honestly  acquired 
by  his   own  labour.     But  the  right  thus  earned  does   not 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     323 

automatically  pass  to  his  heirs  :  the  tardy,  development  of 
steeply  graduated  duties  on  inheritance  (or  "  Death 
Duties  ")  has  approved  itself  increasingly  to  the  ethical 
conscience  and  to  the  practical  counsels  of  administration  : 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  such  taxes  are  generally 
paid  out  of  capital,  for  the  heir  seldom  sets  apart  a  sinking 
fund  out  of  his  income.  There  are  considerable  evasions, 
some  technically  valid,  and  others  not  ;  but  they  are  said 
to  be  less  than  had  been  anticipated .  The  annoyance  which 
a  man  feels  on  reflecting  that  his  heirs  will  inherit  some- 
what less  than  he  has  owned  does  not  seem  to  affect  con- 
duct much  ;  and  perhaps  some  part  of  the  Revenue  needed 
after  the  war,  in  excess  of  that  before  it,  may  be  safely, 
got  by  a  moderate  increase  of  these  duties. 

A  man's  '-  unearned  "  income  may  be  derived  frorn, 
inherited  property,  or  from  the  fruits  of  his  own  labour. 
Partly  because  earned  income  is  likely  to  be  subject  to 
heavy  demands  in  making  provision  for  dependents,  it  is 
reasonably  assessed  to  income-tax  at  lower  rates  than  im- 
earned  income.  So  far  all  seems  well.  But  a  graduated 
income-tax  falls  short  of  attaining  the  great  ideal  of  being 
a  graduated  tax  on  lavish  "  expenditure,"  because  it  is 
levied  on  what  a  man  saves  as  well  as  on  what  he  spends. 

The  "  expenditure  "  which  is  contrasted  with  saving  is, 
of  course,  expenditure  for  immediate  personal  consump- 
tion on  commodities  and  services  of  all  kinds  ;  for  that 
part  of  an  income  which  is  "  saved  "  is  spent,  if  not 
by  the  person  who  saves,  yet  by  those  to  whom  he  hands 
over  its  use  in  return  for  promised  income.  Thus  all  is 
spent  ;  but  that  part  which  is  spent  for  personal  consumption 
disappears  soon  after  it  is  taxed,  and  that  part  which  is 
turned  into  income-yielding  capital  is  taxed  again  fully  in 
the  long  rim.  I 

The  duty  of  each  generation  to  those  which  are  to  follow 
is  as  urgent  as  that  of  the  rich  to  consent  to  surrender  a 
more  than  proportionate  contribution  from  their  incomes  to 
the  national  purse  ;  ethical  considerations  and  those  of  high 
policy  make  alike  for  the  preservation  of  the  capital  that  is 
needed  to  sustain  the  strength  of  a  country  in  peace  and 
when  assailed  by  hostile  aggression. 

'  Suppose  a  tax  of,  say,  a  shilling  in  the  pound  is  levied  permanently  on  all 
income,  and  ;f  i,ooo  saved  yields,  say,  4  per  cent,  permanently  :  then  that  ;^40 
of  annual  income  will  yield  permanently  £1  as  tax  :  and  the  present  value  of 
that  permanent  yield  will  be  ;^5o — the  exact  amount  of  the  original  tax, 


324      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

Finally,  a  remark  may  be  made,  somewhat  dogmatically, 
on  a  'rather  abstruse  point,  which  cannot  be  fully  discussed 
here.  It  is,  that  if  a  great  part  of  the  Revenue  is  derived 
from  taxes  on  commodities  consumed  by  the  people,  then 
either  the  standard  of  living  of  the  people  must  be  lowered, 
or  the  taxes  must  ultimately  be  paid  by  their  employers  ; 
therefore  it  must  in  the  main  fall  on  the  income  obtained 
from  the  use  of  capital  in  business.  In  so  far  as  it  does 
this,  it  will  tend  to  drive  away  capital  nearly  as  much 
as  a  tax  on  income  derived  from  capital  would,  and  even 
more  than  a  tax  on  all  considerable  incomes,  including 
those  that  are  earned  by  professional  men  and  salaried 
business  officials.  All  taxes,  unless  they  are  so  spent  as 
directly  to  increase  efficiency,  tend  in  the  same  direction. 

5.    A   STEEPLY   GRADUATED    HOUSE    DUTY   AND    SOME    MINOR   TAXES. 

A  house  is  in  some  sense  a  single  commodity  ;  but, 
subject  to  exception  for  the  differing  needs  of  large  ^nd 
small  families,  expenditure  on  it  bears  a  much  more  nearly 
uniform  relation  to  total  expenditure  than  does  that  on 
any  other  commodity.  The  furniture  of  a  house  is  not 
liable  to  taxation  as  such  ;  but,  in  fact,  expenditure  on 
furniture  varies  nearly  uniformly  with  the  rental  value  of 
the  house  :  both  rise  automatically  with  increase  in  its 
size,  its  appointments,  and  the  attractions  which  its  situa- 
tion offers  to  well-to-do  people.  Rich  people  with  small 
families  select  well-appointed  houses  in  expensive  meigh- 
bourhoods  ;  poorer  people  with  large  families  go  where 
accommodation  is  cheap.  Taxes  on  houses  are  collected 
cheaply  and  without  evasion,  and  they  can  be  graduated 
at  will. 

Unfortunately,  taxes  on  immovable  property  have  been 
taken  over  in  the  main  by  local  authorities  :  and  high 
local  rates  are  very  unpopular  ;  for,  at  aU  events,  when 
they  are  to  be  spent  largely  on  purposes  that  do  not 
increase  the  special  attractions  of  a  locality,  they  are  thought 
to  put  it  at  a  relative  disadvantage.  But  this  objection 
would  not  lie  against  a  heavy  national  Inhabited  House 
tax,  graduated  more  finely  and  more  steeply  than  the 
present.  It  would  somewhat  relieve  the  pressure  of  taxa- 
tion on  income  ;  and  it  would  escape  the  charge,  that  is 
levied  even  against  a  graduated  income-tax,  of  being  a 
double  tax  on  savings. 

Corresponding  taxes  on  hotelS;^  restaurants,  etc .,  gradxiated 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER    THE    WAR     325 

very  gently,  could  be  so  arranged  as  neither  to  increase  nor 
diminish  the  relative  attractions  of  the  substitutes  which 
they  offer  for  the   conveniences   of  private  domestic  life. 

A  house -tax  is  in  some  degree  a  tax  on  domestic 
servants  ;  but  in  the  hard  times  coming,  and  in  view  of 
the  importance  of  setting  labour  as  much  as  possible  to 
productive  work,  there  should  be  a  tax  on  domestic 
servants  ;  it  should  be  very  high  in  the  case  of  male 
servants,  and  graduated  steeply  according  to  their  numbers. 
One  female  servant  might  be  free  from  tax,  a  second  taxed 
lightly  :  and  abatements  of  the  tax  might  be  allowed, 
adjusted  to  the  number  of  the  family  to  whose  needs  they 
administer. 

A  graduated  tax  on  motor-cars  has  some  of  the  advan- 
tages of  a  graduated  tax  on  houses.  And  if  the  gradua- 
tion can  be  adjusted  with  reference  to  possible  speed,  rather 
than  horse -power  (in  spite  of  the  technical  difficulties  in 
the  way)  it  may  render  a  gteat  social  service  :  for  a  fast 
motor  which  goes  thirty  miles  in  an  hour  on  a  dusty  road 
causes  great  discomfort  to  many  people.  The  suggestion 
that  pleasure  derived  from  a  display  of  wealth  can  be 
made  a  source  of  revenue  without  considerably  injuring 
those  who  are  taxed,  may  appear  Utopian  :  but  it  deserves 
some  consideration.' 

Akin  to  this  matter  is  the  taxation  of  advertisements. 
Every  increase  in  the  many  millions  of  square  inches 
covered  by  the  advertisements  which  are  set  up  annually, 
diminishes  the  chance  that  an  advertisement  which  occu- 
pies only  a  few  square  inches  will  attract  attention  :  and 
a  tax  which  somewhat  lessened  the  total  area  of  advertise- 
ments would  economize  paper,  bring  in  some  revenue,  and 
do  no  great  harm  either  to  advertisers  or  those  who  cater 
for  them.  If  the  tax  did  slightly  check  the  growing  influ- 
ence of  the  advertisement  manager  in  the  coimsels  of 
periodical  literature,  that  might  be  for  the  public  good. 

'  A  person  who  locks  up  ;^3,ooo  in  diamonds  obtains  whatever  social  prestige 
may  attach  to  the  power  of  holding,  in  a  sterile  form,  wealth  that  might  yield, 
say,  ;fi20  in  income.  Now  if  a  tax  of  2  per  cent,  were  imposed  on  the 
capital  value  of  diamonds,  the  same  social  prestige  would  be  derived  from 
diamonds  worth  ;^2,ooo  (for  that  would  involve  a  locking  up  of  ;f2,ooo  of  capital, 
at  a  sacrifice  of  ;g8o  of  income,  together  with  a  payment  of  £^o  in  taxes) ;  and 
the  smaller  stock  of  diamonds  would  be  nearly  as  beautiful  as  the  larger.  A 
small  amount  of  jewellery  might  be  tax-free  :  but  lists  of  all  taxes  on  it  collected 
in  each  locality  would  be  published  in  local  newspapers  ;  and  some  persons 
might  be  tempted  to  overstate  rather  than  understate  their  holdings  of  it. 


326      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

6.  Tendency  to  inverse  graduation  of  the  burden  of 
taxes  on  commodities. 

Every  tax  which  has  been  so  far  considered  is  econo- 
mical in  operation  ;  because  it  is  collected  "  direct  "  from 
the  person  who  is  destined  to  bear  nearly  its  whole  burden, 
or  from  bankers  and  other  agents  acting  under  precise 
contract  on  his  behalf.  It  is  true  that  taxes  on  houses 
and  (license)  taxes  on  motor-cars,  collected  from  those 
who  are  using  them,  will  in  some  measure  be  shifted  back- 
wards on  to  houseowners,  and  the  building  and  the  motor 
industries  ;  but  that  is  a  relatively  small  matter.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  ordinary  commodities,  with  which  we  are 
now  to  be  concerned,  are  not  sufficiently  prominent  and 
permanent  to  be  conveniently  taxed  when  in  the  hands  of 
the  users:  they  can  be  taxed  only  when  they  are  accessible 
in  the  mass  ;  that  is*,  in  the  hands  of  producers  or  traders. 
Every  such  tax  tends  to  be  shifted  forwards  on  to  the  users, 
together  with  the  profits  of  traders  ;  and,  in  case  it  is 
collected  from  producers,  with  their  profits  also  :  it  is 
therefore  wasteful.  Taxes  on  things  that  pass  through  the 
hands  of  iseveral  groups  of  trades  are  generally  very  wasteful. 

There  are  a  few  things,  such  as  commercial  papers, 
deeds,  patent  medicines,  etc.,  which  can  be  required  to 
carry  stamps  as  indications  that  they  have  paid  taxes.  But, 
as  a  rule.  Revenue  officials  can  secure  the  payment  of  the 
proper  tax  on  a  home -produced  commodity  only  by  re- 
quiring that  all  the  processes  of  its  production  shall  be 
so  conducted  as  to  facilitate  their  inspection.  This  can  be 
done  in  regard  to  alcoholic  liquors  ;  because  the  processes 
of  manufacture  are  fairly  simple,  definite,  uniform,  and 
stable  ;  and  they  can  conveniently  be  concentrated  in  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  places.  Also  the  tax  can 
reasonably  be  made  to  yield  so  much  Revenue,  thaJt  the 
cost  of  inspection  is  a  relatively  small  matter. 

There  is  no  other  commodity  of  which  the  same  can  be 
said.  Excise  officers,  who  should  imdertake  to  control  the 
production  and  sale  of  things,  which  are  made  in  whole 
or  in  part  by  innumerable  businesses  scattered  over  the 
country,  could  not  attain  tolerable  success  even  at  vast 
expenditure.  But  so  few  are  now  the  ports  and  the  frontier 
stations  of  international  railways,  at  which  Customs  officers 
have  to  make  elaborate  arrangements  for  inspecting  im- 
ported   goods,    that    their    task    is    relatively    easy.      Thus 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     327 

commodities  of  all  kinds,  whether  entering  the  country  in 
small  or  large  quantities,  whether  completely  manufactured 
goods  or  half -finished  products  to  be  used  in  manufac- 
turing, are  taxed  without  difficulty  at  the  frontier  :  but 
most  of  them  could  not  be  taxed  with  ease  or  certainty 
if  produced  at  home.  Hence  it  arises  that  the  problem' 
of  Revenue  from  taxes  on  particular  commodities  after  the 
war  resolves  itself  in  great  mieasure  into  the  problem  of 
the  new  international  relations  which  the  war  will  have 
brought  about  ;    they  will  be  considered  later  on. 

But  a  little  may  be  said  here  as  to  the  general  tendency 
of  taxes  on  particular  commodities  to  be  graduated  in- 
versely. They  are  apt  to  fall  on  things  which  absorb  a 
larger  percentage  of  the  expenditure  of  the  poorer  classes 
than  of  the  richer  ;  and  they  are  apt  to  be  larger  per- 
centages of  the  values  of  a  thing  consumed  by  the  poorer 
classes  than  of  the  corresponding  thing  consumed  by  the 
richer.  This  double  wrong  is  for  the  greater  part  due  to 
causes  deep-set  in  the  nature  of  things,  though  some  of 
it  could  be  avoided. 

In  this  connection  Customs  and  Excise  duties  may  be 
treated  together.  The  British  Revenue  from  both  comes 
almost  exclusively  from  alcohol,  tobacco,  tea,  coffee,  cocoa, 
and  sugar  (a  considerable  number  of  the  smaller  Customs 
duties,  such  as  those  on  preserved  milk  and  fruit,  are  in 
effect  taxes  on  the  sug'ar  contained  in  otherwise  innocent 
products) .  Now  every  one  of  these  six  things  absorbs 
a  much  larger  part  of  the  income  of  the  working  classes 
than  of  the  rich  :  and  the  finer  and  costlier  sorts  of  each 
are,  with  but  few  and  small  exceptions,  taxed  at  nearly  the 
same  rate  per  pound  or  gallon  as  the  cheaper  sorts,  thus 
effecting  a  double  inverse  graduation  of  the  burden 
of  taxation. » 

'  It  is  sometimes  argued  that  the  taxes  on  the  things  consumed  by  the  indoor 
servants  of  a  rich  man  are  really  paid  by  him.  But  the  wages,  including  food, 
etc.,  which  he  pays,  are  governed  by  those  earned  in  other  employments  by 
people  of  equal  capacities  with  those  servants,  allowances  being  made  for  a 
certain  loss  of  personal  freedom  and  other  incidentals.  Therefore  the  servants 
in  effect  pay  taxes  on  such  amounts  of  these  things  as  are  commonly  paid  by 
other  people  in  their  class.  In  so  far,  however,  as  the  remuneration,  which  they 
receive  in  return  for  their  loss  of  personal  freedom,  is  likely  to  include  larger 
consumption  of  these  things  than  is  usual  in  their  class,  the  employer  may  be 
considered  as  paying  the  taxes  on  that  extra  consumption.  Of  course  he  pays 
any  excess  of  the  rates  on  parts  of  the  house  allotted  to  their  use,  over  those 
which  they  would  be  likely  to  pay  on  their  houseroom  if  not  in  domestic 
sepvic?, 


32  8      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

To  go  into  some  detail.  It  is  very  difficult  to  assess 
spirituous  liquors  to  taxation  in  proportion  to  the  subtler 
excellences  of  which  individual  taste  is  the  arbiter:  so 
the  taxes  on  beer  and  spirits  are  graduated  chiefly  in 
regard  to  their  alcoholic  strength,  and  add  a  much  higher 
percentage  to  the  cost  of  the  poor  man's  drink  than  of 
the  rich  man's.  This  cannot  easily  be  avoided.  But  wine 
is  distinctly  a  thing  for  the  well-to-do  :  and  yet,  unless  it 
contains  much  alcohol,  it  is  charged  only  about  two -thirds 
as  much  again  as  the  cheapest  beer  ;  that  is,  the  per- 
centage charge  on  the  drink  of  the  well-to-do  is  much 
less  than  on  the  poor  man's.  This  inverse  graduation  seems 
a  great  evil,  even  though  it  may  have  been  caused  partly 
by  the  exigencies  of  tariff  negotiations  with  wine -producing 
countries. 

The  duties  on  the  most  costly  wines  are  only  a  minute 
percentage  on  their  value  ;  but  this  inequality  cannot  easily 
be  remedied  without  opening  the  door  to  fraud  and  con- 
tention. Similarly  cigars,  which  may  be  retailed  at  a 
shilling  apiece  or  more,  pay  only  about  half  as  much  again 
per  pound  as  the  cheapest  tobacco,  and  only  a  quarter 
as  much  again  as  the  cheapest  cigarettes.  Again,  tea 
which  is  retailed  at  4s.  a  pound  pays  only  the  same  tax  as 
that  consumed  by  the  mass  of  the  people  :  but  the  average 
import  price  of  all  teas  in  normal  times  is  not  much  more 
than  6d.  The  adjustment  of  such  taxes  at  the  high  per- 
manent levels  which  may  probably  be  necessary  after  the 
war,  is  likely  to  afford  an  additional  motive,  as  well  as 
a  convenient  opportimity,  for  redressing  this  injustice. 

Germany's  grasping  at  selfish  gains  by  violent  and 
oblique  methods  is  undermining  the  sources  of  her  power 
and  causing  her  to  be  distrusted.  In  the  past  Britain  has 
striven  to  deserve  to  be  trusted  :  and  it  is  more  incum- 
bent on  her,  even  than  on  others,  to  reject  selfish  and 
fleeting  gains,  when  they  can  be  got  only  by  methods 
which  are  not  worthy  of  her  best  self.  Whatever  makes 
for  the  cohesion  of  the  British  Empire,  and  of  the  great 
Alliance  which  has  been  recently  strengthened,  and  purified 
in  blood,  is  to  be  sought  with  solid  resolution.  Whatever 
is  directly  needed  for  hindering  the  recrudescence  of 
Germany's  ambition  to  rule  by  terror  over  Central  Europe 
is  both  right  and  prudent.  But  the  more  any  such  measures 
tend  to  our  own  aggrandizement,  the  more  jealously  should 
they  be   scanned   by   us.      Fiscal   arrangements   that   injure 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     329 

Germany,  without  permanently  increasing  our  defensive 
position  against  her,  are  certainly  not  in  the  interests  of 
the  coming  g'eneration. 


//.    TAXES   ON  IMPORTS: 
THE  NEW  INTERNATIONAL   SITUATION 

So  far  taxation  has  been  regarded  almost  exclusively  as 
a  means  of  raising  Revenue  imder  the  difficult  conditions 
which  the  war  is  creating.  But  a  tax  on  the  importation 
of  anything  which  can  be  produced  at  home  acts  in  pro- 
tection of  the  corresponding  home  industry,  unless  it  is 
balanced  by  an  equivalent  tax  on  domestic  products  :  and 
if  the  tax  is  levied  unequally  on  similar  products  coming 
from  different  sources,  it  becomes  what  is  commonly,  though 
inaccurately,  called  a  Preferential  tax.  In  either  case,  but 
more  especially  in  the  latter,  political  considerations  are 
intermingled  with  those  which  are  "  economic  "  in  the 
narrower  uses  of  the  term  ;  and  sometimes  even  they  get 
the  upper  hand.  The  war  has  developed  a  new  political 
situation.  It  has  greatly  affected  international  sentiments  : 
and  it  has  forced  even  those,  whose  detestation  of  war  is 
the  most  intense,  to  recognize  that  industry  and  trade  can 
no  longer  be  regarded  only  as  handmaids  of  life  ;  for 
they  are  likely  to  be  used  by  a  strong  and  resolute  military 
Power  as  pioneers  of  destruction  and  death. 

It  may  therefore  be  right  to  take  some  measures,  which 
are  not  appropriate  to  ordinary  conditions,  in  order  to 
lessen  the  ability  of  a  determined  enemy  to  destroy, 
especially  if  that  can  be  achieved  by  methods  that  will 
disincline  him  for  war.  This  is  not  to  inculcate  hatred  or 
revenge,  which  indeed  indicate  small  natures  :  and  still 
less  to  advocate  policies  that  increase  his  animosity,  with- 
out materially  diminishing  his  chance  of  success  in  war  ; 
for  that  were  folly. 

Unfortunately  the  experience  of  many  centuries  ishows 
that  a  policy,  which  will  confer  a  considerable  benefit  on 
each  of  a  compact  group  of  traders  or  producers,  will 
often  be  made  to  appear  to  be  in  the  interest  of  the  nation  ; 
because  the  hurt  wrought  by  it,  though  very  much  greater 
in  the  aggregate  than  the  gain  resulting  from  it,  is  so 
widely  diffused  that  no  set  of  people  are  moved  to  devote 
much  time  and   energy   to  making  a  special  study   of  it. 


330      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

Its  advocates  speak  with  zeal  and  the  authority  of  expert 
knowledge.  But  they  are  bad  guides,  even  if  unselfish  and 
perfectly  upright  :  for  a  policy  that  makes  for  their  peculiar 
profit  is  invested  in  their  eyes  with'  a  deceptive  glamour. 

I.  General  characteristics  of  taxes  on  imports. 

It  has  just  been  indicated  that  the  expense  and  the 
interference  with  industry  which  are  involved  in  Excise 
duties,  such  as  those  levied  on  alcoholic  liquors,  cannot 
be  extended  to  commodities  in  general  without  adminis- 
trative measures  which  would  be  intolerably  vexatious  to 
home  industries.  Import  duties  on  such  things  as  tea  and 
tobacco  yield  as  net  Revenue  to  the  State  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  money  which  they  take  from  the  people  :  and  so 
do  taxes  on  imported  alcoholic  liquors,  balanced  as  they 
are  by  similar  taxes   on  like  home  products. 

But  a  tax  on  any  imported  product,  which  is  not  balanced 
by  a  corresponding  tax  on  similar  domestic  products,  is 
a  differential  tax  :  and  is  therefore  wasteful.  The  objec- 
tion to  it  does  not  arise,  as  is  sometimes  thought,  from 
the  fact  that  it  is  a  tax  on  an  import  :  on  the  contrary, 
that  fact  tells  in  its  favour.  It  is  open  to  objection  only 
on  the  ground  that  it  is  a  discriminating  or  differential  tax. 
Every  such  tax  is  necessarily  wasteful  if  it  involves  the 
diversion  of  demand  from  an  easier  to  a  more  difficult 
source  of  supply  :  though,  of  course,  it  may  have  political 
or  even  indirect  economic  advantages  which  outweigh  that 
waste.  '       '  .  '         ;       I  ■       ' 

The  waste  may  be  illustrated  by  a  simple  case.  Freshly 
quarried  building  stones  are  often  soft,  and  can  be  worked 
roughly  into  shapes  for  their  final  use  with  but  little  effort. 
The  Masons  Union  at  one  time  insisted  that  all  the  shaping 
work  should  be  done  at  the  point  at  which  a  stone  was  to 
be  used  ;  thus  doubling  or  trebling'  the  effort  and  therefore 
the  cost  of  the  rough  part  of  the  work.  That  rule  in 
effect  imposed  a  differential  tax  on  the  most  efficient  method 
of  production  :  and  the  general  objection  to  an  import 
duty  levied  on  things  which  can  be  obtained  from  abroad 
more  easily  than  they  can  be  produced  at  home  is  that  it 
raises  the  total  cost  to  the  people  of  their  supplies  of  that  , 
thing,  while  the  Revenue  reaps  comparatively  little  gain 
from  their  sacrifices .  The  Exchequer,  with  hunger  but 
little  appeased,  is  likely  to  attack  other  imports,  and  perhaps 
earn  even  less  in  proportion  froni  them  ;   and  50  oq, 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE    WAR     331 

It  is  important  to  reflect  that  a  duty  on  any  import 
prejudices  in  some  degree,  not  only  those  who  desire  the 
foreign  product  for  any  reason,  but  also  all  those  who 
are  engaged  in  production  for  export.  Other  things  being 
equal  (these  words  are  dominant),  a  diminution  by  £10,000 
of  the  imports  which  any  merchant  finds  it  advantageous 
to  make  into  Britain  diminishes  the  demand  for  bills  on 
other  countries  to  the  amount  of  about  £10,000.  That  is 
to  say,  it  tends  to  cause  British  producers  for  exportation, 
together  with  the  shipowning  and  other  mercantile  houses 
associated  with  them,  to  curtail  operations  to  the  extent 
of  about  £10,000.  A  tax  on  imports  which  rival  the 
products  of  a  British  industry  doubtless  increases  its 
activity  ;  enables  it  to  give  increased  employment,  tem- 
porary or  permanent,  to  the  working  classes  and  others  ; 
and  increases  its  command  of  the  economies  of  production 
on  a  large  scale.  But  at  the  same  time  it  tends  to  diminish 
to  about  the  same  extent  the  activity  of  other  British  in- 
dustries :  and  it  narrows,  temporarily  or  permanently,  the 
range  of  the  employment  which  they  afford,  and  their 
command  of  the  economies  of  production  on  a  large  scale. 
This  statement  is  constantly  called  in  question  ;  but  never 
when  full  account  is  taken  of  the  condition  **  other  things 
being  equal." 

The  argument  that  taxes  on  a  country's  imports  tend  to 
alter  the  terms  on  which  she  obtains  them,  slightly  in  her 
favour,  deserves  more  consideration  :  but  it  will  be  found 
to  be  of  little  importance  in  regard  to  general  trade,  except 
in  the  case  of  a  country  nearly  the  whole  of  whose  exports 
are  without  effective  rivals  anywhere  else.  There  are,  how- 
ever, a  few  cases  in  which  a  great  part  of  the  burden  of 
an  import  dtity  can  be  thrown  on  the  foreigner  :  and, 
though  they  amount  to  very  little  in  the  aggregate, 
something  must  be  said  of  them.^ 

If  one  country  is  the  chief  consumer  of  a  thing  for 
which  another  has  special  natural  advantages,  a  tax  on  it 

'  It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  there  is  no  adequate  basis  for  the 
argument  sometimes  put  forward,  that  since  merchants  are  not  generally  willing 
to  accept  a  lower  net  price,  after  paying  freights,  taxes,  and  all  other  costs  in  one 
country  than  another,  therefore  consumers  in  a  country  which  levies  a  tax  on 
an  import  must  pay  that  tax  in  full.  For  this  argument  neglects  the  fact  that  the 
general  purchasing  power  of  money  in  a  country  with  high  import  duties  is 
lowered  by  those  duties  ;  so  that  the  real  values  that  her  people  give  in  return 
for  the  foreign  goods  which  they  consume  are  a  little  lower  than  is  suggested  by 
the  prices  which  they  pay, 


332      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

may  cause  the  exporters  to  continue  to  work  at  barely 
remunerative  prices  rather  than  lose  their  market.  Such 
cases  are  rare,  and  not  important.  But  it  often  happens 
that,  when  producers  in  one  country  have  set  themselves 
to  cater  for  the  special  requirements  of  another,  and  to 
build  up  commercial  connections  with  her,  they  will  go 
a  long  way  towards  meeting  any  import  duty  that 
is  suddenly  sprung  on  them,  until  they  have  made  other 
arrangements  for  utilizing  their  resources.  That  may  last 
for  a  year  or  two,  and  give  rise  to  the  opinion  that  a 
considerable  part  of  the  burden  of  an  import  tax  falls 
on  the  foreign  producer.  But  smart  tricks  of  this  kind 
succeed  temporarily  in  every  branch  of  dealing,  and  they 
are  bad  business  in  the  long  run  :  a  country  which  gets 
the  reputation  of  suddenly  raising  particular  import  duties 
will  find  others  slow  to  accommodate  themselves  to  her 
wants . 

Another  case,  in  which  an  import  duty  is  largely  thrown 
on  a  foreign  producer,  is  seen  when  a  particular  brand 
of  thread  or  the  supply  of  petroleum  in  a  particular  market 
yields  monopoly  profits  high  above  the  normal.  Such 
profits  can  always  be  annexed,  in  part  at  least,  by  the  tax- 
collector  ;  and  his  success  in  regard  to  them  is  frequently 
quoted  as  affording  a  general  argument  in  favour  of 
differential  duties  on  imports  :  but  the  argument  is  invalid. 
The  tax  on  them  is  not  ^a  differential  tax,  since  there  is 
not  any  efficient  and  cheap  substitute  for  thern.^ 

2.  Taxes    on    manufactured    imports    yield    little    revenue 

AND      cause      much      FRICTION      IN      AN      OLD      MANUFACTURING 
COUNTRY. 

Taxes  on  imported  manufactures  are  convenient  sources 
of  Revenue  in  such  a  country  as  Brazil,  whose  conditions 
make  the  collection  of  Revenue  over  her  large  inland  area 
difficult,  while  it  can  be  easily  collected  at  her  ports.  And 
a  Protective  tax,  which  helps  a  young  industry  to  develop 

'  It  is  indeed  sometimes  argued  that  imported  goods  do  not  pay  their  share 
of  the  general  taxation  of  the  country  as  home  produce  does  ;  and  that  therefore 
they  compete  at  an  unfair  advantage  unless  they  are  taxed  on  importation.  But 
the  English  manufacturer  of  products  for  exportation  would  pay  a  double  set 
of  taxes  if  the  foreign  products,  for  which  his  goods  are  exchanged,  had  to  pay 
a  share  of  the  general  taxes  of  the  country.  For  the  taxes  paid  on  importation 
would  have  to  be  deducted  from  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  his  goods  abroad 
before  any  profit  could  be  realized. 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE    WAR     333 

its  latent  strength,  may  be  in  the  interest  of  an  undeveloped 
country  ;  even  though  the  tax  must  inevitably  do  some  hurt 
to  those  few  of  her  industries  which  are  manufacturing 
for  exportation.  For  the  energy  developed  in  a  few  high- 
class  progressive  industries  may  spread  over  a  great  part 
of  the  industrial  system  of  the  country  ;  just  as,  when  an 
iron  screen  concentrates  the  whole  draught  of  a  chimney  on 
a  small  part  of  a  nascent  fire,  it  may  generate  an  intense 
local  heat,  which  spreads  and  pioneers  the  way  for  a  broad, 
strong  fire. 

Neither  of  these  arguments  applies  to  an  old  manufac- 
turing country,  such  as  Britain  is.  But  it  has  recently 
been  argued  that  after  the  war  her  finances  will  require 
her  to  collect  Revenue  from  imported  manufactures  :  and 
that  the  country  will  ultimately  gain  by  lending  some  aid 
to  a  few  industries  which  have  been  outpaced  by  foreign 
rivals  through  faults  for  which  no  one  set  of  persons  is 
specially  responsible.     These  claims  merit  attention. 

Germany  is  in  a  somewhat  similar  position  to  Britain  : 
but  she  has  many  advantages,  which  Britain  lacks,  for  such 
work.  It  will  therefore  be  well  to  look  at  her  experi- 
ence. Some  of  her  industries  which  manufacture  for  export 
have  little  occasion  to  use  imported  half -manufactures  :  but 
others  are  much  hampered  by  import  taxes  on  the  things 
which  they  need.  It  is  true  that  such  things  are  not 
heavily  taxed  ;  but  the  trouble  of  obtaining  drawbacks  on 
foreign  products,  which  are  worked  into  manufactures  for 
exportation,  is  so  great  that  proposals  have  been  seriously 
discussed  in  Germany  for  setting  up  considerable  free- 
trade  areas  surrounding  some  chief  ports,  in  which  work 
and  trade  may  be  unmolested  by  Revenue  officers.  A 
small  free  area  round  Hamburg  docks  already  ofi'ers  facilities 
for  minor  operations,  especially  those  connected  with 
transhipment  for  re-exportation.  But  more  is  needed  even 
in   Germany. ' 

Now  Britain's  exports  of  manufactures  before  the  war  were 
nearly  twice  as  great  relatively  to  her  population  as  those 

'  A  large  space  in  Germany's  "Trade  Statistics  "  is  occupied  with  the  details, 
always  small  and  often  trumpery,  of  imports  which  have  been  admitted  free 
because  they  were  to  be  re-exported  after  being  finished  (Vereddungs-Verkehr). 
The  scheme  has  been  gradually  worked  out  with  consummate  skill  ;  but  its 
total  results  are  meagre.  A  corresponding  scheme  for  Britain  would  require  a 
Germanic  army  of  officials,  and  be  very  costly.  It  would  lessen  the  Revenue 
derived  from  taxes  on  imports,  while  yet  doing  little  to  lessen  the  grievous  hurt 
which  they  would  inflict  on  her  exporting  industries. 


334      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND.    TAXATION 

of  Germany.  She  owes  much  of  her  advantage  as  an 
exporter  to  the  ease  with  which  goods  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  can  be  used  in  'each  of  her  manufacturing  dis- 
tricts. No  country  would  lose  nearly  as  much  as  she 
would  from  being  unable  to  use  foreign  half -manufactures 
freely,  luiless  drawbacks  could  be  got  easily  ;  and  no 
people,  other  than  those  of  her  own  kindred,  would  resent 
so  much  the  trouble  and  friction  involved  in  getting  petty 
drawbacks  on  small  things.  This  is  all  the  more  important 
because  many  things  which  are  *-  completely  manufac- 
tured," even  in  the  narrowest  use  of  the  term,  are  wanted 
by  manufacturers  for  export  as  implements  or  auxiliaries 
of  their  work. 

There  is  indeed  some  force  in  the  claim  that  a  Pro- 
tective tariff  is  needed  to  aid  giant  businesses  in  estab- 
lishing a  complete  standardization  on  the  most  advanced 
modern  model.  But  the  economies  of  production  on  the 
largest  scale  are  not  those  which  belong  to,  a  single 
business,  nor  even  to  a  single  industry.  They  belong  in 
the  highest  degree  to  a  compact  industrial  district,  such  as 
Lancashire,  where  the  productions  of  many  correlated 
industries  for  sale  at  home  and  abroad  work  into  one 
another's  hands  ;  thus  getting  what  they  need  without 
obstruction,  and  without  special  inducement  to  dump  in 
favour  of  the  foreign  purchaser. 

Let  us  contrast  Lancashire's  industries  with  the  German 
steel  industry,  which  sprang  into  strength,  as  is  well  known, 
late  in  last  century  when  a  chemical  discovery  of  British 
origin  enabled  Germany  to  turn  to  good  account  the  cheap 
and  abundant  ores  of  Luxemburg  and  Lorraine  ;  to  which 
those  recently  opened  out  in  north-eastern  France  have 
now  been  added.  The  industry  was  aided  by  a  low  Pro- 
tective tariff,  which  was  perhaps  for  the  time  beneficial 
to  the  country.  But,  as  generally  happens,  the  tariff  was 
increased  :  and,  largely  in  consequence,  the  shadow  of  an 
oligarchy  of  a  few  giant  capitalists  is  already  over  the 
land.  Smaller  men  are  being  suppressed  ;  and  in  particular 
those,  who  work  up  half -finished  materials,  have  to  pay 
more  than  their  full  costs  of  production,  while  similar  things 
go  past  them  to  be  sold  abroad  at  less  than  full  costs. 

The  worst  abuses  of  this  practice  were  mitigated  before 
the  war  began.  But  it  has  been  used  with  some  force 
as  an  argument  in  favour  of  protecting  the  British  steel 
industry  against  malignant  dumping  ;  although  it  was  carried 


NATIONAL   TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     335 

to  greater  extremes  against  highly  Protected  steel  indus- 
tries in  Italy  and  elsewhere  than  against  the  British.  No 
good  distinction  has  yet  been  found  practicable  between 
malignant  dumping  and  the  practice  of  selling  abroad  occa- 
sionally at  relatively  low  prices,  which  obtains  in  almost 
every  British  industry. 

In  spite  of  the  care  and  ability  with  which  Germany 
has  sought  to  make  her  tariff  a  source  of  Revenue,  as 
well  as  an  engine  of  commercial  and  political  strategy, 
she  has  not  succeeded  in  doing  so  :  and  Britain  would  be 
unlikely  to  succeed  where  she  has  failed.  In  191 3 
Germany  reaped  about  2s.  per  head  of  her  population 
from  taxes  on  finished  goodjs  of  all  kinds  {Fertlge 
Waren)  :  and  it  is  probable  that  the  population  of  Britain 
will  need  to  contribute  about  a  hundred  times  as  much  as 
this  per  head  to  her  Exchequer  after  the  war.  Germany's 
taxes  on  manufactures  were  but  small  percentages  on  the 
values  of  the  quantities  taxed,  which  were  themselves  not 
nearly  co -extensive  with  the  quantities  imported  ;  since  for 
one  reason  or  another  the  sharp  edge  of  nearly  every  tax  on 
manufactures  had  had  to  be  blunted  :  but  there  was  no 
mercy  for  the  food  of  the  people.  Her  import  duties  on 
grain,  even  after  allowing  for  large  rebates  and  bounties 
on  exportation,  yielded  far  more  than  all  those  on  finished 
and  half -finished  goods.  Some  advocates  of  protection 
for  British  manufactures  will  learn  with  surprise  that  her 
receipts  from  import  duties  on  "  raw  materials  for  the 
purposes  of  industry  "  {Rohstoffe  fiir  Indastriezwecke) 
yielded  almost  the  same  amount  as  those  on  finished  goods, 
and  more  than  four  times  as  ,much  as  those  on  half -finished 
goods    {Halbfertige  Waren).^ 

Before  going  farther  it  may  be  well  to  point  out  that 
some  adjustments  of  Protective  duties,  which  have  been 
recently  advocated,  fail  to  indicate  clearly  the  full  intensity 
of  the  Protection  afforded  by  them.     For  as  a  rule  the  raw 

'  The  leading  groups  of  manufactures  contributed  about  lod.  per  head ; 
cotton  stuffs,  yarn  and  thread  yielded  a  little  over  2d.  ;  about  id.  per  head  was 
reaped  from  each  of  the  following  five  groups  : — iron  goods,  woollen  goods  and 
yarn,  machines  and  rolling  stock,  silk  and  silken  goods,  and  wooden  goods. 
Less  than  Jd.  per  head  was  reaped  from  each  of  the  two  or  three  remaining 
groups,  which  were  thought  worthy  of  separate  notice  in  the  Statistiches 
Jahrbruck.  The  year  1913  was  favourable  to  the  tariff.  Going  back  ten  years, 
we  find  smaller  items  generally  :  and,  pursuing  the  minute  details  given  in  the 
huge  records  of  Germany's  external  trade,  we  find  many  sub-heads  showing 
only  a  very  small  fraction  of  a  farthing  per  head. 


336      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

material  of  a  manufactured  product  is  admitted  free,  and 
half -products  are  charged  at  a  low  rate.  But  the  high 
tax  on  finished  manufactures  is  levied  on  their  whole  value, 
and  affords  therefore  a  much  higher  premium  on  the 
process  of  manufacture  than  is  sug^gested  by  its  rate.' 

3.  Protective  taxes   will    not    enable    British   industries   to 
overtake  those  which  have  outstripped  them. 

The  Steel  industries  require  large  capital,  high  ability, 
ever-ready  initiative,  and  some  scientific  faculty.  But  the 
industries  in  which  Britain  has  been  most  outpaced  by  Ger- 
many, have  additional  requirements.  They  need  a  long- 
continued  investment  of  gteat  masses  of  mental  as  well  as 
material  capital.  Such  are  pre-eminently  the  dye  and  fine 
glass  "  chemical  "  industries  ;  and,  in  a  somewhat  less 
degree,  the  electrical  industries.  None  of  them  owes  much 
to  the  tariff  :  for  each  has  been  ahead  of  foreign  com- 
petitors almost  from  the  start,  in  consequence  of  its 
abundant  supply  of  mental  capital.  At  first  they  owed 
much  to  the  co-operation  of  public  laboratories  :  but  now 
their  own  vast  laboratories,  largely  concerned  with  secret 
processes,  put  them  above  such  aid.  Their  finances  are, 
however,  greatly  assisted  by  the  very,  low  salaries  which 
suffice  for  the  "  Scientific  proletariat  "  that  have  been 
trained  in  public  institutions .  Their  success  suggests  indeed 
a  prima  facie  case  for  a  Protective  tax  as  a  sub- 
sidiary means  of  promoting  the  growth  of  a  British  dye 
industry. 

But  unfortunately,  while  Britain  is  by  far  the  larg'est  ex- 
porter of  textile  goods  in  which  these  dyes  are  used,  she 
took  only  about  an  eighth  of  Germany's  exports  of  them 
before  the  war,  while  China  took  about  a  fifth.  Again, 
if,  after  the  war,  Britain  cuts  off  her  supplies  of  German 
dyes  before  she  is  ready  with  effective  rivals  from  her 
own  resources,  aided  by  those  of  Switzerland,  etc.  ;  she 
will  hand  over  a  great  part  of  her  trade  in  the  Southern 

'  To  take  a  somewhat  extreme  case  :  Suppose  a  manufactured  import  which 
contains  ;^20o  worth  of  material,  and  on  which  ;^ioo  worth  of  labour,  etc. 
(profits  included),  has  been  spent,  to  be  taxed  at  the  rate  of  20  per  cent. — so  that 
it  cannot  be  sold  at  less  than  £2,(yo  ;  then  a  home  producer,  who  could  obtain 
the  material  untaxed,  would  receive  a  bounty  at  the  expense  of  the  consumer 
of  £to :  i.e.  60  per  cent,  (not  20  per  cent.)  on  the  ;^ioo  of  labour,  etc.,  which 
he  expended.  Even  if  he  had  to  pay  a  tax  of  10  per  cent,  on  his  material, 
his  bounty  would  be  40  per  cent,  on  his  outlay. 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE    WAR      337 

hemisphere    to    Germany,    and    other    coomtries    which    use 
German  dyes.' 

To  speak  generally  :  when  it  appears  that  an  industry 
needs  the  sinking  of  several  millions  of  capital  in  scientific 
and  other  preparatory  work,  spread  over  many  years,  before 
it  can  speak  on  even  terms  with  a  German  or  American 
industry  which  has  got  the  start  over  it  ;  then  the  best 
remedy  is  a  voluntary  association  of  British  manufacturers 
and  traders,  who  have  some  special  interest  in  the  matter, 
and  who  unite  their  resources  to  set  up  the  industry  in  full 
strength.  For  this  purpose  they  may  reasonably  receive 
a  good  subsidy  from  the  State,  which,  on  the  one  hand, 
should  defend  them,  more  carefully  than  seems  to  have 
been  done  in  the  past,  against  foreign  patents  designed 
to  hamper  the  growth  of  a  British  industry  ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  provide  against  the  danger  that  the 
new  industry  may  be  tempted  to  make  selfish  use  of 
monopolistic  strength.  Meanwhile  State  Laboratories  and 
University  Laboratories,  subsidized  by  the  State,  should  be 
required  to  undertake  suitable  inquiries  on  behalf  of  the 
industry.  But  all  this  absorbs  Revenue  :  and  therefore 
a  small  duty  may  reasonably  be  levied  on  imports  which 
compete  with  the  products  of  the  new  industry  ;  and  a 
heavy  duty  on  any  of  them  which  can  be  shown  to  be 
often  "  dumped  "  in  the  British  market  at  an  exceptionally, 
low  price  for  the  express  purpose  of  crushing  the  new 
industry.  2 

The  scientific  foresight  of  the  Germans  has  enabled 
them  to  obtain  control  over  a  long  series  of  "  key  "  metals, 
some  of  which  have  their  sources  exclusively  in  the  British 
Empire.  This  control  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much' 
abused  so   far  :    but   many  of  the   compounds    into    which 

'  The  following  'figures  of  Germany's  exports  of  the  three  chief  groups  of 
dyes  in  1913  in  million  marks  may  be  of  interest.  Total,  216  :  to  Britain,  28  ; 
Russia,  8  ;  France,  5  ;  Italy,  11  ;  Japan,  14  ;  China,  45  ;  United  States,  38. 
The  average  value  of  all  was  not  far  from  2  marks  for  a  kilogram  ;  say  is.  a 
pound. 

The  initiative  having  been  taken  by  the  Royal  Society,  a  great  plan  for 
organizing  the  best  scientific  ability  of  the  country  in  the  aid  of  her  industries 
was  promulgated  in  the  first  annual  "  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  for  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  "  [Cd.  8336]. 

'  The  scope  of  this  chapter  does  not  permit  an  inquiry  into  the  various  aims 
and  methods  of  remedies.  But  reference  may  be  made  to  the  study  of  "  Con- 
structive Measures "  in  §§  94-132  of  the  Memorandum  on  "  The  Industrial 
Situation  after  the  War,"  recently  issued  by  the  Garton  Foundation. 

22 


338      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

these  metals  enter  are  vital  as  materials,  if  not  for  munitions 
of  war,  yet  for  the  appliances  by  which  munitions  are 
fashioned.  This  is  a  matter  in  which  new  conditions  seem 
to  call  for  some  departure  from  that  liberal  policy  which 
has  served  Britain  well  in  the  past  :  the  far-reaching 
military  designs  of  Germany  seem  to  require  that  some 
restrictions  should  be  imposed  on  the  nationality  of  the 
ownership  of  these  sources.  But  the  key  metals  of 
to-day  are  not  those  of  a  few  years  ago  :  and  restrictive 
measures  by  taxation  are  but  a  poor  substitute  for  con- 
structive energy,  which  may  outpace  the  Germans  in 
finding  out  what  will  be  the  key  metals  of  the  coming 
generation.' 

4.  The  policy  of  import  duties  on  some  kinds  of  food, 
considered  in  relation  to  the  new  requirements  of 
national  defence. 

Before  the  war  it  seemed  clear  that  the  vastly  greater 
purchasing  power,  in  terms  of  wheat,  given  by  the  wages 
of  British  workmen  over  that  of  the  wages  of  correspond- 
ing classes  in  Germany  and  other  countries  with  high  Pro- 
tective tariffs  on  foodstuffs,  was  too  great  an  advantage 
to  be  abandoned,  merely  on  the  ground  that  in  a  war 
Britain  might  be  forced  to  restrict  her  total  imports.  It 
was  argued  that,  though  comforts  and  luxuries  and  many 
sorts  of  raw  materials  might  be  in  reduced  supply,  yet 
the  necessary  quantum  of  wheat  could  always  be  brought 
in  by  aid  of  convoys,  or  otherwise.  It  was  urged  that  a 
rich  man's  family  eat  less  than  a  working  man's,  because 
their  appetites  are  largely  assuaged  by  more  expensive 
foods  :  and  therefore  a  tax  on  bread  involves  an  inverse 
graduation  of  the  burden  of  taxation  in  its  most  extreme 
form.  Stress  was  laid  on  the  wastefulness  of  the  intensive 
cultivation  by  men,  women,  and  children  on  the  land  at 
home  ;  while  much  less  expense  would  bring  better  sup- 
plies from  land  which  only  needed  to  be  scratched  in 
order  to  blossom  with  grain  :  for  the  cost  of  transport 
of  grain  from  the  centres  of  distant  continents  to  British 
harbours  had  become  less  than  that  of  moving  it  a  few 
miles  by  land  had  been  a  century  ago. 

'  "  The  Report  of  the  Tariff  Commission  on  War  and  British  Economic  Policy," 
issued  in  March  1915  (MM  56)  contains  well-digested  matter,  helpful  even  to 
those  who  do  not  concur  in  its  tendencies. 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     339 

The  argument  was  conclusive,  on  the  assumption  that 
adequate  supplies  of  food  and  other  necessaries  could  be 
convoyed  to  our  shores  in  reasonable  security.  But  recent 
developments  have  made  that  assumption  questionable  ;  and 
some  measure  of  Protective  policy  in  regard  to  necessary 
food  supplies  may  need  to  be  accepted  as  an  insurance 
against  disaster.  Britain  by  herself  is  not  able  to  contend 
on  equal  terms  against  the  military  and  naval  forces,  in- 
cluding those  below  the  surface  of  the  water,  which  may 
be  brought  against  her  :  and  while  almost  every  part  of 
the  British  Empire  is  liable  to  become  a  cause  of  contest^ 
Britain  may  have  to  rely  in  the  main  on  her  own  resources 
for  defence  against  an  enemy  near  at  hand.  It  may  there- 
fore be  good  economy  to  spend  a  considerable  sura 
annually  on  insuring  both  the  maintenance  of  fairly  large 
stocks  of  necessary  food  and  some  other  things  in  the 
country  ;  and  so  considerable  an  increase  in  the  area  of 
land  under  tillage,  together  with  so  ample  a  supply  of 
trained  female  labour  ready  for  the  lighter  work  of  the 
farm,  that  large  harvests  can  be  secured  when  importation 
has  become  difficult. 

The  case  for  such  a  policy  has  been  prejudiced  by  the 
assumption  of  some  of  its  advocates  that,  independently  of 
the  risks  of  war,  agricultural  progress  is  to  be  measured 
by  the  increase  of  output  per  acre  :  whereas,  if  the  home 
supply  could  be  supplemented  securely  by  cheap  importa- 
tion from  abroad,  it  ought  to  be  measured  by  the  increase 
of  output  for  each  thousand  workers  on  the  land  :  so 
measured,  Britain  compares  favourably  with  other  countries, 
in  spite  of  her  neglect  of  the  general  and  tech^nical  education 
of  her  agriculturists. 

Even  if  it  be  desired,  for  any  special  purpose,  to  measure 
progress  by  the  output  per  acre,  there  is  no  good  ground 
for  the  suggestion  that  Germany's  recent  advance  is  to  be 
attributed  to  the  Protective  duties  on  food,  which  have 
compelled  her  working  classes  generally  to  be  content  with" 
a  meagre  diet,  while  the  rapid  increase  of  their  skill  and 
intelligences  was  providing  large  fortunes  for  their 
employers.  For,  as  Professor  Naumann  argties,  while 
admitting  that  she  cannot  now  change  her  policy  in  regard 
to  agricultural  Protection,  the  progress  of  her  agriculture 
in  recent  years  has  been  at  about  the  same  rate  as  under 
the  more  liberal  Caprivi  policy  :  and  he  adds  that  ''  com- 
parison with  duty-free  agriculture  in  Switzerland,  Belgium, 


340      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

Holland,  and  Denmark  shows  that  the  improvement  is  at 
least  as  great  in  the  duty-free  countries  as  in  those  with 
Protective  tariffs."  ' 

Germans,  when  praising  the  fertility  of  the  English  soil, 
have  in  mind  chiefly  the  power  which  much  of  it  has  of 
yielding  rich  crops  of  grass  without  labour  :  and  there 
seems  no  good  reason  to  suppose  that  nearly  all  of  it 
would  be  ploughed  up  if  it  were  under  German  manage- 
ment. But,  since  the  military  situation  seems  to  require 
that  the  country  should  greatly  diminish  her  dependence  on 
imported  supplies  of  grain  and  meat,  it  may  probably  be 
well  to  plough  up  a  great  deal  of  land,  selected  under  expert 
advice,  as  capable  of  yielding  under  the  plough,  with  but 
moderately  expensive  methods,  a  considerable  quantity  of 
grain,  together  with  fodder  for  about  as  many  cattle  as 
used  to  be  nourished  by  its  grass. 2 

Co-operation  among  farmers  and  better  technical  educa- 
tion may  do  much  to  insure  the  country  against  shortage 
of  food.  No  abstract  principle  should  stand  in  the  way 
of  taxes  on  its  importation  if  they  would  work  well.  But 
an  artificial  rise  in  the  prices  of  staple  foods  is  not  lightly 
to  be  contemplated.  Heavy  taxes  on  imports  of  therri  from 
other  parts  of  the  Empire  would  be  a  great  evil  :  and, 
as  we  shall  see  presently,  import  duties  from  which  they 
were  exempted  would  have  little  effect.  But  some  slight 
movement  in  that  direction  might  be  accompanied  by  low 
taxes  on  grass  land  from  which  land  imder  thte  plough  was 
exempted,  and  by  other  measures,  among  which  might  be 

'  "  Central  Europe,"  pp.  226-7. 

'  Mr.  Middleton's  important  report  on  "  The  Recent  Development  of  German 
Agriculture,"  1916  [Cd.  8305],  tells  us  that  the  production  per  acre  under  arable 
cultivation  is  as  high  in  Britain  as  in  Germany:  but  that  two-thirds  of  the 
cultivated  land  in  Britain  are  under  grass,  and  only  one-third  in  Germany. 
Allowing  for  this  and  for  the  fact  that  a  large  number  of  the  agricultural 
workers  in  Germany  are  women,  and  that  a  good  many  more  are  not  perma- 
nently employed,  this  is  not  a  bad  showing'  as  to  the  efficiency  of  British  work. 
For  the  average  number  of  persons  engaged  in  agriculture  per  hundred  acres 
was,  by  Mr.  Middleton's  reckoning,  58  in  England  and  Scotland,  against  l8'3 
in  Germany.  Statistical  records  of  agriculture  are  a  little  unkind  to  Britain. 
Germany  was  credited  before  the  war  with  fifty  million  tons  of  potatoes  and 
ten  million  pigs :  but  the  pigs  eat  a  great  part  of  the  potatoes  ;  and  the  swedes, 
etc.,  which  British  cattle  eat  are  not  counted.  Very  little  beef  is  eaten  in 
Germany  :  the  cattle  are  mostly  middle-aged  and  calves  ;  they  do  not  eat  nearly 
as  much  as  the  British  ox  who  is  being  made  ready  for  slaughter.  When 
talking  with  German  economists  on  such  subjects,  I  found  that  they  did  not 
know  that  the  British  statistics  of  horses  relate  only  to  those  on  the  farm. 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE    WAR     341 

a  low  premium  on  the  storage  of  grain  :  for  that  would 
help  the  British  farmer  more  than  the  importer,  and  would 
induce  the  importer  to  store  his  grain  here.  The  grain  must 
be  stored  somewhere  :  the  erection  of  granaries  here  would 
not  cause  additional  cost  in  the  long  run.' 

Whatever  public  expense  is  incurred  for  such  purposes 
should  make  for  public  ends  :  it  should  leave  unaltered 
the  position  of  the  landowner,  save  in  so  far  as  he 
directly  contributes  to  the  expenses  of  increased  produc- 
tion. The  people  must  suffer  by  paying  more  for  their 
food  :  the  Exchequer  must  not  expect  to  gain  anything 
net,  and  it  may  lose  ;  the  farmer  and  labourer,  who  pro- 
duce more,  should  gain  more.  But  the  landowner  should 
gain  only  what  can  be  shown  to  be  due  to  additional  outlay 
on  his  part  for  the  improvement  of  the  yield  of  the  land. 

It  seems  that  the  most  economical  production  is  on  very 
large  holdings,  where  many  workers  are  supplied  with  the 
best  appliances  and  direction  by  their  employer  ;  and  on 
small  holdings,  where  every  one  works  with  his  or  her 
hands.  If  the  facts  are  as  here  suggested,  some  account 
of  them  might  be  taken  in  the  adjustment  of  taxes  on 
agricultural  land. 

5.  Tendencies   towards  preferential    tariffs    arising  out  of 

THE  experiences  OF  THE  WAR,  AND  THE   INTERNATIONAL 
REGARDS  ENGENDERED  BY  IT. 

We  have  so  far  been  occupied  almost  exclusively  with 
economic  considerations,  though  these  have  been  to  some 
extent  modified  by  the  new  military  situation  ;  but  now 
we  have  to  take  account  of  political,  and  even  emotional 
influences  also.  The  dominant  fact,  so  far  as  Britain  is 
concerned,  is  the  intensity  of  the  affection  which  her  Depen- 
dencies, and  especially  the  Dominions,  have  manifested  for 
her  :  and  scarcely  less  notable  is  the  persistent  mutual 
loyalty  of  the  Allies  in  their  common  defence  of  the  vital 

'  Perhaps  a  premium  on  all  wheat  in  a  store  in  excess  of  a  few  tons  might 
be  granted  at  the  rate  of  2s.  per  ton  on  each  of,  say,  the  first  Tuesdays  in 
January,  April,  July,  and  October:  that  is  8s.  annually.  There  would  be  some 
large  stores  owned  by  Government,  or  traders,  in  which  any  one  might  deposit 
grain  on  payment :  but  any  one  might  apply  for  recognition  of  a  store-house. 
He  might  be  bound  to  post  sworn  statements  on  the  preceding  Mondays  as  to 
his  store,  and  not  to  open  it  on  the  following  two  days  except  in  the  presence 
of  an  Excise  officer.  Perjury  would  be  severely  punished,  and  therefore  only 
occasional  verification  of  such  statements  would  be  required.  Similar  provi- 
sions might  be  applied  to  oats,  for  which  the  British  climate  is  well  suited. 


342      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

interests  of  mankind.  It  is  only  natural  that  those  who 
have  previously  been  inclined  towards  a  Protective  tariff 
policy  should  consider  whether  these  cordial  sentiments  can 
be  materialized  in  Preferential  tariffs  ;  and  this  suggestion 
is  not  without  attraction  even  for  those  who,  like  the  present 
writer,  believe  that  simplicity,  elasticity,  and  freedom  from 
all  need  for  intricate  negotiations  are  those  qualities  of  a 
policy  of  international  trade  which  are  most  conducive  to 
national  prosperity  and  to  permanent  international  goodwill. 

It  has  been  proposed  to  set  up  a  group  of  Preferences, 
the  highest  of  which  would  be  confined  to  the  British 
Empire,  and  the  next  would  be  given  to  our  Allies  ;  while, 
in  some  schemes,  the  Central  Powers  would  be  subjected 
to  tariffs  of  exceptional  severity.  A  weak  point  in  many 
such  proposals  appears  to  be  the  low  place  to  which  they 
relegate  Britain's  first  great  colony,  in  strong  contrast  to 
Adam  Smith's  loyalty  to  her. 

It  is  obvious  that  Britain  cannot  grant  a  Preference  on 
imports  from  any  country,  unless  she  first  imposes  a  tax 
on  imports  from  other  sources.  As  few  are  willing  to 
propose  import  duties  on  wool,  cotton,  and  other  important 
raw  materials  of  manufacture,  this  leaves  her  without  any 
very  important  Preference  to  be  granted  to  the  rest  of  the 
Empire,  except  in  regard  to  food  :  and  here  the  first  place 
is  given  to  staple  grains  and  meat. 

Since  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  her  levying  an  import 
duty  on  staple  grains,  in  order  to  extend  the  area  of  her 
arable  land  for  purely  military  reasons,  this  proposal  seems 
at  first  sight  to  have  an  easy  course.  But  it  does  not 
work  out  easily.  If  Empire  grain  is  admitted  free  and 
Argentina  grain  is  not,  then  Argentina  grain  will  oust 
Empire  grain  partially  or  wholly  from  other  markets  ;  and 
Britain  will  be  supplied  almost  exclusively  from  the  Empire 
at  about  the  same  prices  as  before  ;  she  would  then  in  effect 
levy  scarcely  any  tax  on  grain^  and  there  would  be  mo 
considerable  rise  in  prices  and  no  eti'ective  Preference.  If, 
on  the  other  hand.  Empire  grain  is  taxed  at  a  rate  lower 
than  that  levied  on  other  grain,  then  the  British  people 
will  pay  increased  prices  on  all  their  grain,  from  whatever 
source  it  is  derived  ;  and  only  a  part,  probably  not  more 
than  half,  of  this  extra  payment  will  be  effective  in  ex- 
tending the  area  of  arable  cultivation  in  Britain  :  she  will 
thus  make  a  valuable  present  to  other  parts  of  the  Empire 
at  great  cost  to  herself. 


NATIONAL    TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     343 

If  this  were  done  as  a  free  gift,  it  would  be  a  splendid 
generosity  :  but  such  gifts  are  commonly  expected  to  meet 
with  some  return  ;  and  experience  shows  that  business  trans- 
actions among  relatives  and  friends  are  dangerous.  In 
negotiations  with  strangers  every  one  is  apt  to  estimate 
his  "  fair  "  claims  at  points  somewhat  higher  than  seem 
reasonable  to  the  other  side  ;  but  he  generally  accepts, 
without  much  rancour,  what  he  can  get.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  thinks  that  a  relative  ought  to  be  at  least  "  fair," 
if  not  generous,  in  his  dealings  :  so,  when  relatives  bargain, 
each  is  apt  to  expect  more  than  he  could  get  from  a 
stranger  ;  and  each  has  some  feeling  of  grievance  if  he  is 
disappointed.  Canada  and  Australia  might  probably  rate 
the  importance  to  Britain  of  any  Preference  they  gave  to 
her  manufactures  over  those  of  France,  United  States,  etc., 
higher  than  she  did  ;  and  she  might  rate  more  highly 
than  they  did  the  importance  to  them  of  any  Preferences 
she  gave  to  their  grain  over  that  of  America,  Argentina, 
and  Russia. 

Again,  France  has  already  given  a  hint  that  the  great 
iron  and  other  industries  of  her  Eastern  territory,  the  coal  of 
Lorraine  being  left  out  of  account,  would  not  be  willing 
to  reject  German  coal  in  favour  of  British  coal.  It  may 
even  be  said  that  her  Eastern  and  Western  Provinces 
generally  have  divergent  interests  in  regard  to  tariff 
arrangements  with  her  Eastern  and  Western  neighbours. 
Again,  there  may  probably  be  seen  a  rise  in  importance  of 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  towards  equality  with  those 
of  the  Atlantic  :  and  tariff  arrangements,  which  on  the 
whole  are  acceptable  to  the  Eastern  Provinces  of  Canada, 
may  be  of  Httle  benefit,  and  considerable  hurt,  to  her 
Western.  External  Preferences  that  give  rise  to  internal 
discord  are  likely  to  have  harmful  results,  economic, 
political,   ethical,   and   even  military. 

Difficulties  of  this  kind  will  be  found  to  open  out  in 
every  direction  if  specific  details  of  plans  for  graduated 
Preferential  duties  are  considered  closely  :  and  they  are 
in  addition  to  those  evils  which,  as  has  already  been  indi- 
cated, are  inherent  in  every  Protective  system.  But  they 
are  likely  to  press  more  hardly  on  Britain  than  on  any 
other  country,  because  they  would  eat  into  the  heart  of 
those  export  industries  on  which  depend  her  economic 
strength,  and  especially  her  power  of  bearing  the  grievous 
pressure  of  taxation  that  lies  before  her. 


344      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

It  is  true  that  she  is  in  a  strong  strategic  position  in 
regard  to  trade  with  Germany  :  for  she  is  already  able 
to  supply  herself  with  nearly  all  the  things  which  Germany 
exports  ;  and  she  hopes  soon  to  fill  up  the  most  important 
gaps.  But  for  that  very  reason  her  moral  position  is 
exceptionally  weak.  For  the  heavier  the  taxes — to  say 
nothing  of  prohibitions — which  her  Allies  and  Depen- 
dencies set  on  German  goods,  the  better  will  be  her  oppor- 
tunities for  supplying  similar  goods  in  larger  quantities 
and  at  higher  prices.  If  any  action  of  hers  gives  colour 
to  Germany's  ceaseless  charges,  that  she  organized  the  war 
in  the  interests  of  her  own  industry  and  trade  ;  then  she 
will  inflict  on  herself  a  deadly  injury,  from  the  effects  of 
which  she  may  never  quite  recover.  Bernhardi,  and  others 
who  have  spoken  or  acted  on  fierce  Machiavellian  lines, 
have  been  chief  authors  of  that  uprising  of  the  world 
against  Germany  which  seems  likely  to  put  a  just  end  to 
some  of  her  ambitions  :  if  Britain  tries  to  turn  victory 
to  her  own  special  benefit,  she  will  commit  a  scarcely 
less  fatal  error. 

There  is  another  danger  of  the  same  kind,  though  on 
a  smaller  scale  :  it  is,  that  she  may  pay  too  much  atten- 
tion to  eager  traders  and  others  who  press  their  special 
desires  on  the  attention  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Board 
of  Trade  ;  and  forget  that  the  trusteeship  which  she  holds 
is  the  largest,  and  up  to  the  present  time  has  on  the  whole 
been  the  noblest,  that  the  world  has  ever  known.  Her 
Allies  indeed  can  speak  for  themselves  at  every  international 
Conference  :  and  Canada,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  can, 
in  various  degrees,  keep  themselves  acquainted  with  what 
is  going  on,  and  cause  their  opinions  and  wishes  to  be 
communicated  to  British  representatives  at  a  Conference  ; 
and  these  influences  are  likely  to  be  further  increased. 
But  the  populations  of  India  and  the  Crown  Colonies  have 
less  influence  in  the  matter.  India's  trade  with  Germany  is 
very  important  :  therefore  Britain  is  bound  to  consider 
India's  interests  as  much  as  her  own  in  all  negotiations 
about  it.  The  trade  in  Canada's  nickel,  and  Australasia's 
tungsten,  hitherto  largely  in  German  hands,  can  be  con- 
trolled in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  those  Dominions  ; 
but  Burmah's  great  export  trade  in  tungsten,  and  that  of 
Britain's  numerous  Crown  Colonies  in  their  various 
specialities,  raise  ethical  rather  than  economic  problems. 
If,  on  the  whole,  it  seems  right  that  any  of  them  should 


NATIONAL   TAXATION    AFTER   THE   WAR     345 

be  solved  with  dominant  reference  to  Imperial  exigencies 
rather  than  to  local  advantage,  then  some  compensation 
should  be  made  in  other  ways. 

Some  of  the  arguments  on  which  representatives  of 
British  industries  are  basing  claims  for  Protective  duties 
in  their  own  favour  tell  even  more  strongly  for  granting 
Protection  to  cotton  manufacturing  and  some  other  indus- 
tries of  India.  It  has  often  been  said,  and  perhaps  with 
truth,  that  the  greatest  political  achievement  in  the  history 
of  the  world  has  been  the  upright  and  unselfish  administra- 
tion of  India  by  Britain.  But  for  two  generations  it  has 
been  clear  that  some  of  the  pleas  of  Indian  industries  for 
Protection  are  stronger  than  any  which  could  be  put  forward 
for  British  industries.  Inquiries,  partly  created  by  the  war 
and  partly  made  prominent  by  it,  have  furnished  some  new 
strong  arguments  in  favour  of  a  limited  Protection  to  a 
few  British  industries.  But  if  even  a  touch  of  approval 
were  given  to  the  immoderate  claims  put  forward  in  some 
of  the  answers  of  representatives  of  great  industries  to  a 
recent  circular  of  inquiry  issued  by  the  London  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  while  all  Protection  were  withheld  from 
Indian  industries,  Britain  would  appear  to  abdicate  her  great 
place  as  ruler  of  India  in  India's  interests. 

These  ethico -political  considerations  reinforce  the  strictly 
economic  reflections,  indicated  above,  that  a  broad  system 
of  Protective  duties  would  deprive  Britain  of  the  strength 
which  has  enabled  her  to  carry  the  chief  financial  burdens 
of  the  war,  would  confer  some  benefits  on  particular 
industries  at  the  cost  of  much  greater  injury  to  the  people 
at  large  ;  and  would  lessen  the  funds  available  for  paying 
pensions  to  wounded  men  and  to  widows  ;  and  for  lowering 
the  present  mountain  of  debt,  which  may  threaten  to  turn 
some  peril  of  a  later  generation  into  disaster. 


CHAPTER    XIX 

National    Thrift 

By  ARTHUR   SHERWELL,  M.P. 

No  matter  more  intimately  affects  the  economic  and  social 
development  of  a  nation  than  the  wise  control  of  public 
and  private  expenditure  and  the  proper  and  profitable 
utiHzation  of  national  and  personal  wealth.  The  obsolescent 
formula  of  the  so-called  Manchester  school  of  political 
economists,  "  Peace,  Retrenchment,  and  Reform,"  however 
questionable  in  some  of  its  proposed  applications,  sum- 
marized in  one  at  least  of  its  elements  an  injunction  and 
a  warning  which  no  nation  ambitious  of  real  development 
can  refuse  to  respect. 

It  is  the  unfortunate  habit  of  formulas,  however,  to  lose 
their  influence  and  potency  in  the  rush  of  changing  circum- 
stances even  when,  as  in  the  case  quoted,  the  truth  which 
they  enshrine  is  of  fundamental  and  enduring  force  ;  and 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  doctrine  of  economy  in  public 
and  private  expenditure  has  suffered  an  eclipse  from  which 
even  the,  at  present,  incalculable  social  and  economic  con- 
sequences of  a  world  tragedy  has  been  imable  to  deliver 
it.  The  formula  of  "  Retrenchment  "  suffered,  as  a  political 
doctrine,  partly  from  the  narrow  and  unimaginative  way 
in  which  it  was  sometimes  sought  to  apply  it  ;  but  chiefly 
from  the  undreamed  of  expansion  of  national  wealth  and 
from  collision  with  new  social  ideas  which  demanded  ex- 
periments without  a  strict  regard  to  their  structure  or  cost. 
Our  system  of  party  government,  with  its  rival  cries  and 
programmes,  and  the  ever -increasing,  and  largely  un- 
checked, powers  of  the  Executive,  in  turn  tend  to 
foster  extravagance. 

But  whatever  the  causes,  we  have  moved  far  from  the 
spirit,  as  also   from  the   conditions,  pf  a  time    (less  than 

346 


NATIONAL   THRIFT,  U7. 

sixty  years  ago)  when  a  statesman  of  the  position  of  Mr. 
Disraeli  could  declare  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  "  there 
is  no  country  that  can  go  on  raising  seventy  millions  in 
time  of  peace  with  impunity  "  ;  or  when  a  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  felt  constrained  to  resign  (as  did  Lord 
Randolph  Churchill  in  1886)  because  he  could  not  con- 
sent to  Army  and  Navy  Estimates  aggregating  thirty -one 
millions  !  Such  times,  to  a  generation  complacently  tolerant 
of  a  pre-war  Budget  of  £200,000,000,  seem  almost  as 
legendary  as  Bolingbroke's  lament  that  parliamentary  aids, 
aggregating  in  eight  years  a  total  of  £55,000,000,  con- 
stituted "  a  sum  that  will  appear  incredible  to  future 
generations,  and  is  so  almost  to  the  present."  '  Even  to 
a  historian  like  Hume,  who  regarded  indebtedness  con- 
tracted upon  parliamentary  security  as  a  "  p>ernicious 
practice  "  and  "  the  more  likely  to  become  pernicious  the 
more  a  nation  advances  in  opulence  and  credit,"  the 
then  indebtedness  of  the  country  (nearly  £150,000,000) 
threatened  "the  very  existence  of  the  nation."  2 

These  forebodings,  by  men  who  could  not  anticipate  the 
developments  of  modern  trade  and  industry  nor  the  con- 
sequent expansion  of  the  national  wealth,  appear  imreal 
and  even  fantastic  to  a  generation  like  the  present,  which 
confounds  economy  with  parsimony  and  is  exhilarated  rather 
than  depressed  by  the  dimensions  of  (modem  Budgets .  And 
yet  the  enormous  and  increasingly  rapid  growth  of  national 
expenditure  in  recent  years  is  a  matter  of  more  than 
academic  importance,  especially  for  those  who  take  the 
broadest  and  most  liberal  view  of  the  value  of  State  activity 
in  the  organization  of  social  progress.  In  Mr.  Gladstone's 
first  year  at  the  Exchequer  (1853)  the  gross  ordinary 
expenditure  of  the  country  was  approximately  £56,000,000  ; 
by  1865  it  had  risen  to  £65,100,000  ;  in  the  mid-seventies 
(1874)  it  was  £74,000,000;  by  1880  it  had  grown  to 
£82,000,000;  and  in  1893  (Mr.  Gladstone's  last  year  of 
political  office)  it  was  £91,300,000.  Thus  in  a  period 
of  forty  years  it  had  increased  by  6 2  per  cent.  Since 
Mr.  Gladstone's  retirement  the  national  expenditure  has 
grown  to  dimensions  of  which  he  certainly  never  dreamed, 
and  which,  whatever  the  causes  or  justification  in  policy, 
would  have  filled  that  stern  economist  with  forebodings 
and  alarm.      In    19 13-14,  the  last  pre-war  year    (and  less 

'  "  Some  Reflections  on  the  Present  State  of  the  Nation." 
»  '•  History  of  England,"  1778,  vol.  iii,  p.  215. 


348      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

than  thirty  years  from  the  day  when  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill's  prediction  of  a  hundred  million  Budget  was 
greeted  with  incredulity  as  "  unduly  pessimistic  "),  the 
national  expenditure  had  risen  to   £200,000,000. 

Now  it  may  be  admitted  at  once  that  a  peace  Budget 
of  £200,000,000  is  not  in  itself  a  peril  nor,  assuming  the 
proceeds  of  taxation  to  be  devoted  to  really  economic  (i.e. 
remunerative  and  reproductive  purposes) — a  crucial  and  vital 
assumption — is  it  out  of  proportion  to  the  nation's  wealth. 
At  the  same  time,  in  view  of  the  pre-war  temper  of  the 
nation,  and  especially  in  view  of  inevitable  post-war  changes 
in  international  conditions  of  which  the  effect  is  at  present 
largely  incalculable,  it  is  necessary  to  remind  ourselves 
of  an  almost  forgotten  truth  that  high  taxation  is  not  in 
itself  an  index  of  real  prosperity.  It  may  easily  be  the 
symptom  of  a  spendthrift  policy  which  issues  in  disaster 
to  a  nation's  interests  and  ideals.  There  is  much  truth 
in  Bentham's  statement  that  "  hand  in  hand  with  waste 
is  to  be  found  taxation,"  and  also  in  his  further  state- 
ment that  "  in  the  case  of  a  tax  there  will  always  be  a 
portion  of  evil,  the  quantity  of  which  wiU  be  the  same^ 
be  the  produce  ever  so  great  or  ever  so  small."  Lecky, 
whose  historical  knowledge  and  judgment  will  be  respected 
even  by  those  to  whom  his  political  opinions  do  not  appeal, 
warned  us  that  "  nations  seldom  realize  till  too  late  how 
prominent  a  {place  a  sound  system  of  finance  holds  among 
the  vital  elements  of  national  stability  and  well-being  ; 
how  few  political  changes  are  worth  purchasing  by  its 
sacrifices  ;  how  widely  and  seriously  human  happiness  is 
affected  by  the  downfall  or  the  perturbation  of  national 
credit,  or  by  excessive,  injudicious,  and  unjust  taxation." 
This  is  what  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  had  in  view  when 
he  reminded  his  political  chief  that  expenditure  and  finance 
"  involve  and  determine  all  othier  matters."  No  country, 
however  wealthy,  can  afford  continually  to  increase  its 
budgets  and  to  multiply  its  taxes  without  a  full  assurance 
that  the  national  revenues  are  being  economically  used  and 
devoted  to  really  remunerative  and  reproductive  purposes 
(i.e.  the  provision  of  efficient   "goods  and  services"). 

Even  when  this  assurance  is  present  there  is  the 
danger  in  high  expenditure  that  imperceptibly,  but  by 
increasingly  accelerated  stages,  it  may  foster  a  spirit  of 
extravagance  which  is  impatient  of  checks  and  enthu- 
siastically   indifferent    to    future    consequjences .       As    Mr. 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  349 

Gladstone  warned  the  House  of  Commons  in  1863, 
"  together  with  the  so-called  increase  of  expenditure  there 
grows  up  what  may  be  termed  a  spirit  of  expenditure,  a 
desire,  a  tendency  prevailing  in  the  country,  which,  in- 
sensibly and  unconsciously  perhaps,  but  really,  affects  the 
spirit  of  the  people,  the  spirit  of  Parliament,  the  spirit  of 
the  public  departments,  and  perhaps  even  the  spirit  of 
those  whose  duty  it  is  to  submit  the  Estimates  to 
Parliament." 

No  one  who  has  watched  at  all  closely  the  character 
and  course  of  political  demands  in  recent  years,  or  the 
attitude  and  temper  of  Parliament  in  respect  to  public 
expenditure  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  war, 
and  not  least  the  dangerous  innovation  which  associated 
the  organization  and  direction  of  important  and  valuable, 
but  necessarily  costly,  social  experiments  and  policies  with 
the  Treasury  Department,  can  say  that  Mr.  Gladstone's 
warning  is  not  needed  to-day.  Political  conditions  and 
national  circumstances  are  greatly  different  from  those  of 
1863,  and  political  parties  are  properly  influenced  by  social 
ideals  and  by  an  expanded  theory  of  State  responsibility 
for  ordered  social  development  which  represent  a  consider- 
able advance  in  political  thought  ;  but  the  changes,  so 
far  from  destroying  the  force  of  the  warning,  make  Parlia- 
ment and  the  nation  more  susceptible  to  the  "  spirit  of 
expenditure."  Nor  is  it  clear  that  the  danger  will  be 
removed  by  the  stupendous  experience  and  burden  of  the 
war.  On  the  contrary,  if  history  repeats  itself,  it  may 
actually  be  aggravated  by  the  war.  Our  previous  wars 
have  bequeathed  to  us  not  merely  a  burden  of  indebted- 
ness, but  a  familiarity  with  enlarged  standards  of  expendi- 
ture which  has  weakened  the  sense  of  responsibility  ^nd 
tended  to  profligacy  in  the  great  Idfepartments  of  State. 
That  was  notably  the  effect  of  the  Crimean  War  which, 
as  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  truly  said,  had  '*  begotten  in 
us  a  'habit  and  even  a  taste  for  expenditure  such  as  it  is 
much  easier  to  acquire  than  to  get  rid  of."  ' 

It  is,  of  course,  true  that  large  public  expiemditure  is 
not  in  and  of  itself  a  source  of  national  danger  or  weak- 
ness. Mirabeau,  indeed,  held  that  "the  more  the  indi- 
vidual pays,  and  the  more  the  public  spends,  the  happier 
are  the  people."  And  his  reason  "was:  '^Because  the 
contributions  of  the  individual  are  nothing  but  the  servicie 
'  "Twenty  Years'  Financial  Policy." 


350       NATIONAL   FINANCE   AND    TAXATION 

which  he  renders  to  the  public  ;  and  the  expenditure  of 
the  public,  likewise,  is  only  the  guardianship  of  individuals 
or  the  surety  of  the  equivalent  which  they  should  receive." 
This  view  of  the  "  beneficencies  of  taxation  "  is  clearly 
tenable  if  the  objects  aimed  at  are  reasonably  guaranteed  ; 
if,  in  other  words,  our  machinery  for  expenditure,  and 
especially  our  methods  of  Parliamentary  control,  provide 
us  with  a  reasonable  security  for  the  wisie  and  economical 
use  of  public  revenue.  That  is  essential.  Granted  such 
security,  an  expanding  Budget  would  be  a  token  of 
progress  instead  of  a  symptom  of  extravagance  and 
danger. 

But  apart  from  the  fact  that  existing  Parliamentary 
and  administrative  arrangements  do  not  give  ,us  this  security, 
and  that  the  conditions  under  which  party  government  is 
now  maintained  in  this  country  do  not  favour  it,  the  view 
suggested  is  not  in  any  sense  destructive  of  the  doctrine 
of  economy.  On  the  contrary,  it  becomes  fruitful  and 
beneficent  in  proportion  to  the  efficiency  of  our  adminis- 
trative arrangements  and  to  the  vigilant  practice  of 
economy.  Expenditure  unaccompanied  by  vigilance  breeds 
reaction.  Economy  is  not  parsimony,  nor  is  it  indifference 
to  the  idea  of  expansion  and  devielopment .  It  does  not 
imply  a  negation  of  State  enterprise.  It  is  concerned  solely 
with  the  profitableness  of  expenditure.  In  Professor 
Cannan's  words,  economy  "  is  the  best  utilization  of  avail- 
able means."  Burke,  adapting  an  old  Latin  saw,  put  the 
true  view  tersely  and  completely  when  he  described  a 
system  of   economy  as    "  itself  a   great   revenue." 

The  war,  whatever  its  other  consequences,  has  certainly 
forced  the  question  of  national  economy  and  thrift  into  the 
foregroimd  of  national  duties. 

This  is  the  result  not  merely  of  the  vast  biu-den  of 
debt  which  the  war  has  imposed  on  the  State,  or  of  the 
new  conditions  which  the  wholesale  destruction  of  life  and 
wealth  must  create  :  it  is  also  a  consequence  of  the  dis- 
closure of  faults  and  deficiencies  in  our  methods  and  system 
of  organization. 

"  War,"  said  a  Minister  recently  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  "  is  waste."  In  the  strict  economic  sense  the 
dictum  is  incontestable,  but  in  the  narrower  administrative 
sense  in  which  the  words  were  used  war  need  not  be, 
and,  in  a  properly  organized  State,  ought  not  to  be,  waste. 
The  cost  of  the  war  under  any  circumstances  would  have 


NATIONAL   THRIFT  351 

been  stupendous,  but  if,  to  take  a  principal  condition  first, 
our  organization  and  preparedness  had  been  what  the  infor- 
mation available  only  to  an  Executive  suggests  that  it  should 
have  been,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  some  hundreds  of 
millions  of  pounds  could  have  been  saved.  Or,  to  take 
a  condition  of  smaller  but  vital  importance,  if  the  lessons 
learned  more  than  a  decade  before  in  South  Africa  had 
been  embodied  in  pre-war  organization,  the  cost  of  the 
war  would  have  been  considerably  reduced.  The  waste- 
fulness of  war  in  the  administrative  sense  is  due  to 
inadequate  or  faulty  organization.  Deficient  organization 
is  ever  the  prolific  parent  of  waste.  No  more  depressing 
evidence  of  our  characteristic  neglect  of  the  foundations  of 
thrift  could  be  provided  than  is  indicated  by  the  accu- 
mulating, but  still  far  from  complete,  evidence  of 
administrative  incompetency  and  shameful  extravagance 
in  the  strictly  business  management  of  the  war.  The 
emergency,  it  is  true,  was  urgent  and  unprecedented,  but 
the  scandals  which  have  so  far  been  exposed  betray  an 
indifference  to  expenditure  and  a  lack  of  rudimentary 
prudence  which  stamp  the  administrative  services  of  the  two 
principal  spending  departments  of  the  State  as  incredibly 
inefficient  and  untrained.  The  matter  has  still  to  be  fully 
investigated,  but  the  information  already  available  in  Parlia- 
mentary discussions  and  in  the  Reports  of  the  Committee 
of  Public  Accounts  suggests  a  task  of  reorganization  and 
reconstruction  upon  which  Parliament  must  strenuously 
insist . 

But  the  matter  has  an  importance  and  an  urgency  outside 
the  range  of  these  particular  revelations.  The  war  has 
precipitated  a  general  stocktaking  of  resources  and 
organization  which  was  plainly  urgent  before  the  war. 
Our  administrative  and  financial  organization  and  arrange- 
ments, despite  repeated  modifications  and  improvements, 
are  imperfectly  adapted  to  mteet  the  requirements  of  the 
very  notable  developments  in  State  action  and  policy  which 
have  occurred  since  Mr.  Gladstone's  day.  This  enlarge- 
ment of  the  sphere  of  State  action  and  responsibility  is 
the  outcome  of  social  ideas  which  the  war  will  not  quench 
but  will  rather  stimulate .  The  old  demands  will  be  followed 
by  new  and  politics  will  expand  into  a  science  of  recon- 
struction. Such  expansion  may  be  the  truest  form  of 
national  thrift  if  it  be  founded  upon  efficient  organization, 
and   if  the   checks  against   departmental   extravagance   and 


352      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

incompetency  are  adequate  and  sure.  Our  resources  are 
great  if  they  be  not  wasted. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  recent  years  concern  for 
expansion  in  State  enterprise  has  not  been  accompanied 
by  an  equal  concern  for  efficient  and  economical  adminis- 
tration. Reliance  has  been  placed  upon  a  Treasury  system 
of  supervision  and  checks  which  automatic  expansion  of 
departmental  activities  had  already  heavily  taxed  and  from 
which  the  scrutiny  of  Parliament  was  by  force  of  circum- 
stances largely  removed.  It  is  probable  that  if  some  part 
of  the  very  considerable  time  which  Parliament  has  devoted 
in  the  last  ten  years  to  discussion  of  the  sources  of  revenue 
had  been  devoted  to  investigation  of  the  avenues  of  expen- 
diture, the  result  would  have  been  to  the  advantage  of  the 
taxpayer  and  of  the  State.  Be  that  as  it  may,  one  of  the 
first  tasks  in  the  impending  period  of  national  reconstruc- 
tion must  be  a  full  and  searching  inquiry  into  the  objects 
and  machinery  of  expenditure.  This  should  include  not 
merely  the  equipment  and  costs  and  services  of  the  State 
Departments,  but,  what  is  tnuch  more  important  and  urgent, 
the  efficacy  and  adequacy  of  our  existing  arrangements 
for  financial  control. 

Theoretically  and  constitutionally  the  supreme  control 
over  finance  devolves  upon  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
the  business  of  Supply  is  still  by  tradition  the  most  im- 
portant work  set  down  for  its  consideration.  In  point  of 
fact,  however,  the  control  of  the  House  of  Commons  over 
finance  is  exceedingly  limited,  and  the  provision  of  Supply 
tends  to  become  more  and  more  formal  and  perfunctory. 
This  is  the  result  partly  of  an  accentuated  system  of  party 
government,  but  chiefly  of  new  and  revolutionary  changes 
in  Parliamentary  procedure  which  give  enormous  and 
dangerous  powers  to  the  Executive  at  the  expense  of  the 
Legislature.  Under  the  present  standing  orders  not  more 
than  twenty  days  in  any  session  are  "  allotted  "  '  to  the 
consideration  of  the  Annual  Estimates  (including  Votes  on 
Account) .  These  must  be  days  before  August  5th.  As 
consideration  of  the  whole  of  the  votes  submitted  to  Parlia- 
ment is  impossible  within  the  prescribed  period,  it  is 
customary  to  leave  the  selection  of  the  votes  to  be  dis- 
cussed to  the  Opposition  Whips,  although  other  political 
parties  may  and  do  prefer  requests  through  the  usual 
channels  for  a  particular  vote  to  be  taken.  The  choice 
'  An  allotted  day  is  one  on  which  Supply  is  put  down  as  first  order. 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  353 

is  invariably  made  on  non -financial  grounds,  and  discussion 
for  the  most  part  turns  on  matters  of  administrative 
practice  and  policy  rather  than  on  the  details  of  the  vote. 
Some  of  the  matters  raised  are  of  comparatively  trivial 
importance,  as,  for  instance,  in  a  recent  year,  when  a 
large  part  of  the  day  allotted  to  the  Post  Office  Estimates 
was  absorbed  by  a  discussion  of  disciplinary  proceedings 
connected  with  the  love  affairs  of  a  provincial  postmaster  ! 
Valuable  time  is  thus  wasted,  and  important  votes  involving 
expenditure  of  millions  of  pounds  are  used  as  pegs  for  the 
discussion  of  grievances  which  might  well  be  referred  to 
a   Standing    Commission   or   Committee. 

An  unfortunate  feature  of  the  case  is  that  neither  the 
departments  nor  the  Government  have  an  interest  in  more 
efficient  procedure.  As  things  are,  the  Government  is  sure 
of  its  votes  by  simple  effluxion  of  time.  x\t  10  p.m.  on 
the  last  but  one  of  the  allotted  days  the  Chairman  of  Com- 
mittee, under  the  powers  of  the  "  guillotine,"  forthwith 
puts  to  the  House  every  outstanding  question  on  the  vote 
then  under  discussion,  and  immediately  thereafter  every 
other  question  relating  to  the  Civil  Service  Estimates  and 
the  outstanding  votes  in  the  Estimates  of  the  Navy,  Army, 
and  Revenue  Departments.  Similarly,  at  10  p.m.  on  the 
last  allotted  day,  Mr.  Speaker  repeats  the  process  on  the 
report  stage  of  the  Votes.  In  this  summary  way  vast  sums 
of  public  money,  amounting  it  may  be  to  fifty  or  a  hundred 
millions,  are  voted  to  State  departments  without  a  word 
of  debate  by  the  mechanical  process  of  the  guillotine. 
The  procedure  has  long  been  a  scandal  and  a  discredit 
to  Parliamentary  authority  and  prestige.  It  reduces  control 
to  something  less  than  a  form,  and  grows  as  a  peril  pari 
passu  with  the  expansion  of  State  activities.  It  may  not 
"be  possible  or  desirable  to  conform  our  procedure  to  the 
Continental  practice  by  embodying  the  Estimates  of  both 
revenue  and  expenditure  in  a  Budget  Bill  and  submitting 
them  in  that  form  for  Parliamentary  approval.  A  change 
of  this  kind  would  be  useless,  apart  from  corresponding 
changes  in  the  procedure  and  controlling  powers  of  Parlia- 
ment. What  is  urgently  wanted  to  revive  and  to  enlarge 
the  financial  control  of  Parliament  is  the  appointment  by 
the  House  of  Commons  from  its  own  members  of  a  strong 
and  representative  Standing  Committee  on  Finance,  by 
whom  the  Estimates  could  be  thoroughly  examined  and 
analysed  before  they  were  laid  before  Parliament  and  whose 

23 


354      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

report  would  be  submitted  with  the  Estimates.  Such  a. 
Committee  should  have  power  to  interrogate  Ministers  and 
permanent  heads  of  departments  and  to  obtain  such  detailed 
information  as  might  be  required  to  justify  or  to  question. 
the  grants  proposed.  Some  supervising  machinery  of  this- 
kind  is  indispensable  if  an  effective  Parliamentary  check 
is  to  be  secured  against  extravagance  and  waste,  and  if 
the  House  of  Commons  is  not  to  become  a  purely- 
mechanical  instrument  for  registering  the  decisions  and. 
demands  of  the  Executive.  Suc'h  an  arrangement,  whUe 
securing  thorough  and  necessary  scrutiny  of  the  Estimates,, 
would  leave  undisturbed  the  opportunity  for  Parliamentary 
discussion  of  important  matters  of  administrative  practice 
and  policy. 

The  suggestion  is  not  a  novel  one  in  principle,  although 
in  its  intended  scope  and  effect  it  goes  much  farther  than 
the  disposition  of  successive  Governments  has  hithertO' 
approved.  In  1903  a  Select  Committee  on  National 
Expenditure  recommended  the  appointment  of  a  special 
Estimates  Committee  ;  but  the  recommendation,  although 
repeatedly  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the  Government, 
was  not  acted  upon  until  April  191 2,  when  a  Sessional 
Committee  on  Estimates,  consisting  of  fifteen  members 
(with  five  as  a  quorum),  was  appointed  "  to  examine  such 
of  the  Estimates  presented  to  this  House  as  may  seem 
fit  to  the  Committee,  and  to  report  what,  if  any,  economies 
consistent  with  the  policy  implied  in  those  Estimates  should 
be  effected  therein."  Under  the  original  motion  made- 
by  the  Government  the  Committee  was  merely  empowered. 
"  to  examine  and  report  "  on  the  selected  Estimates  ;  and 
the  explicit  reference  to  possible  economies  was  added  by 
the  vote  of  the  House.  The  Committee  sat  during  191 2, 
and  was  reappointed  in  19 13  and  19 14,  but  no  report 
for  the  last-named  year  (save  a  covering  note  to  the  in- 
complete evidence  taken)  has  been  published.  The  Com- 
mittee has  not  been  reappointed  during  the  last  three 
years.  The  Committee,  it  will  be  seen,  had  no  authority 
to  investigate  matters  of  policy,  for  which  the  Executive 
(subject,  in  the  larger  matters,  to  the  approval  of 
Parliament)  is  alone  responsible  ;  nor  did  it  attempt  a 
survey  of  all  the  Estimates.  The  Estimates  of  one  de- 
partment only  were  taken  each  session.  Its  reports  were 
"  mainly  confined  to  questions  of  form  and  to  examination 
of    the    methods    of    estimating    and    the    justification    of 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  355 

Estimates,"  and  its  work  tended  to  dovetail  into  that  of 
the  Committee  of  Public  Accounts  which  annually  examines 
the  audited  accounts  of  the  public  departments.  Within 
the  narrow  limits  to  which  it  was  restricted  the  Estimates 
Committee  did  useful  work,  but  its  existence  was  too  brief 
to  allow  it  to  impress  its  influence  in  any  marked  degree 
upon  the  Estimates.  Nor,  as  hitherto  constituted,  is  it 
physically  possible  for  such  a  Committee  to  undertake  the 
detailed  review  and  scrutiny  of  all  the  Estimates  which 
is  imperatively  required  if  Parliamentary  control  is  to  be 
efficient  and  real. 

As  things  have  lately  tended,  and  as  is  inevitable  under 
the  growing  congestion  and  increasing  preoccupations  of 
Parliament,  control  drifts  more  and  more  from'  the  House 
of  Commons  to  the  permanent  State  officials,  and  Treasury 
discretion  is  the  safeguard  upon  which  the  taxpayer  has 
chiefly,  and  almost  exclusively,  to  rely.  The  Public 
Accounts  Committee- by  far  the  most  important  Parlia- 
mentary check  upon  departmental  inefficiency  and  extrava- 
gance that  now  exists — has  a  long  and  honourable  record 
of  fruitful  public  service  to  its  credit,  but  its  work  is  of 
a  special  kind.  It  is  concerned  solely  with  the  audited 
accounts  of  the  different  departn^ents,  and  it  can  only  report 
on  ex|>enditure  when  it  has  been  actually  incurred. 

The  supervision  of  the  Estimates  by  the  Treasury  is, 
as  the  SeJect  Committee  on  Estimates  said  in  its  Report 
for  1 91 2,  "a  real  check  upon  the  Service,"  but,  as  it 
pertinently  added,  "  the  question  arises  whether  it  is  suffi- 
cient." It  must  not  be  forgotten,  as  the  Committee  on 
Retrenchment  in  the  Public  Expenditure  recently  pointed 
out,  that  the  Treasury  has  certain  functions  of  ordinary 
administration  which  it  must  necessarily  perform  in  con- 
nection with  the  imposition  of  taxation  and  the  collection 
of  revenue  ;  and  while  we  fully  agree  with  the  Retrench- 
ment Committee's  view  that  "  every  step  should  be  taken 
to  restrict  its  [i.e.  the  Treasury's]  activities  as  a  spending 
department  so  that  it  may  be  as  free  as  possible  for  exer- 
cising the  very  important  duty  of  securing  public  economy 
and  financial  regularity,"  it  must  be  insisted  that  gains  in 
this  direction  do  not  compensate  the  taxpayer  for  a  lapse 
in  Parliamentary  control.  The  Committee  on  Estimates, 
in  1912,  appreciative  of  the  part  which  constitutional  usage 
and  law  have,  with  deliberateness,  assigned  to  the  House 
of  Commons  as  the  supreme  guardian  of  the  public  purse. 


356      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

"  hoped  "  and  "  believed  "  that  its  own  work  would 
*'  become  a  very  real  and  useful  part  of  the  machinery 
employed  for  securing  economy  and  efficiency  in  the  pre- 
paration of  the  Estimates  presented  to  Parliament,"  but 
experience,  through  no  fault  of  the  Committee,  has  failed 
to  justify  that  hope. 

It  should  be  one  of  the  earliest  tasks  of  Parliament, 
in  the  stocktaking  that  must  follow  the  war,  to  investigate 
and  to  review  the  entire  position. 

But  it  is  not  merely  in  respect  to  the  consideration 
of  the  Estimates  that  the  preoccupations  of  Parliament  and 
the  mechanical  rules  of  procedure  weaken  and  destroy  con- 
trol. New  and  far-reaching  projects  of  reform,  involving 
in  many  cases  the  annual  expenditure  of  considerable  public 
funds,  are  forced  through  the  House  in  an  increasingly 
undigested  form,  and  considerable,  and  often  material, 
sections  of  important  Bills  are  "  guillotineJi  "  without  dis- 
cussion. The  important  and  costly  Insurance  Act  may 
be  cited  as  a  case  in  point.  It  is  true  that  the  money 
resolutions  of  such  Bills  are  separately  discussed,  but  such 
discussion  is  necessarily  an  imperfect  safeguard  when  the 
structure  and  details  of  the  scheme  upon  which  cost  is 
dependent  are  not  fully  considered.  The  Insurance  Act 
is  but  one  illustration  of  a  method  of  Parliamentary  pro- 
cedure which,  apart  from  its  arbitrariness  and  clumsiness, 
inevitably  tends  to  financial  extravagance  and  waste^  That 
it  is  an  important  illustration  is  plain  from  the  fact  that 
Health  Insurance,  with  its  kindred  services,  now  involves 
an  annual  charge  on  public  votes  amounting  to  close  upon 
£8,000,000. 

It  is  a  tradition  in  British  politics  that  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  is  the  watch -dog  who  jealously  guards 
the  public  purse,  and  no  doubt  a  powerful  and  masterful 
Finance  Minister  can  exercise  a  salutary  influence  in  the 
direction  of  economy.  No  ChanceEor  of  the  Exchequer 
has  ever  succeeded  so  well  in  stamping  sound  and 
economic  administrative  principles  upon  State  departments 
as  Mr.  Gladstone.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  in  his 
expressed  view,  is  "  the  trusted  and  confidential  steward 
of  the  pubUc.  He  is  under  a  sacred  obligation  with  regard 
to  all  that  he  consents  to  spend."  ^ 

Mr.  Gladstone's  own  enthusiasm  for  economy  led  him 
to  take  cognizance  of  the  smallest  details  of  departmental 
'  Speech  at  Edinburgh,  November  29,  1879. 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  357, 

expenditure,  and,  on  one  occasion  at  least,  he  did  not  think 
it  derogatory  to  his  high  position  to  make  representations 
concerning  the  wasteful  use  of  stationery  in  the  Govern- 
ment departments  !  To  him  the  country  owes  the  appoint- 
ment, in  1 861,  of  the  Public  Accounts  Committee,  and 
the  still  greater  gain  of  the  Exchequer  and  Audit  Act 
which,  with  the  material  assistance  of  Mr.  Childers,  was 
passed  in  1866.  That  Act  established  for  the  first  time 
a  complete  system  of  effective  audit  over  departmental 
expenditure,  and — to  quote  the  opinion  of  the  late  Lord 
Welby — was  unquestionably  "  a  reform  of  the  greatest 
administrative  importance . '  * 

Even  Mr.  Gladstone,  however,  powerful  as  he  was,  and 
rigid  as  were  his  views  and  practice,  had  persistently  to 
fight  for  his  economies.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Cobdeai, 
written  in  1869,  he  wrote  :  "  I  speak  a  literal  truth  when 
I  say  that  in  these  days  it  is  more  difficult  to  save  a 
shilling  than  to  spend  a  million."  The  truthfulness  of 
that  statement  many  of  his  successors,  struggling  with  the 
demands  of  a  later  and  tnore  eager  generation,  have  p>ain- 
fully  endorsed.  Mr.  Gladstone,  it  is  true,  belonged  to  a 
school  of  political  thought  which  could  hardly  foresee  the 
expanded  demands  of  a  quickened  national  spirit,  and  his 
theory  of  economy  was  more  rigid,  and  perhaps  less  con- 
siderate of  the  real  economy  of  fruitful  expenditure,  than 
a  generation  moved  by  modem  social  impulses  could 
approve  ;  but  his  instinct  for  the  dangers  attendant  upon 
a  "  spirit  of  expenditure  "  is  of  enduring  value  and  force. 

But  while  a  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  can  do  much 
to  impress  his  views  upon  the  spending  departments,  the 
effectiveness  of  his  influence  depends,  first,  upon  his  personal 
sympathies  with  economy,  and,  second,  and  to  an  immeasur- 
ably greater  extent,  upon  his  authority  in  the  Cabinet.  The 
limits  and  difficulties  of  revenue  production  naturally  tend 
to  make  him  an  economist  ;  whereas  the  exigencies  of  pvolicy 
under  the  party  system  of  government  may  supplant  or  over- 
ride considerations  of  economy  in  the  Cabinet.  And  it 
by  no  means  always  happens  in  modem  Governments  that 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  is,  apart  from  the  Prime 
Minister,  the  dominant  j>ersonality  in  a  Cabinet.  His 
responsibility  is  traditional  and  constitutional,  but  it 
requires  to  be  reinforced  by  Parliamentary  vigilance  and 
review. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  plan  of  this  chapter  to  discuss 


358      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

in  detail  the  channels  available  for  the  practice  of  economy. 
The  main  expenditure  of  the  country  is  of  course 
dependent  on  policy,  external  (or  imperial)  and  domestic, 
and  this  is,  and  as  things  are  must  be,  outside  the  com- 
plete control  of  Parliament.  The  unlimited  control  hitherto 
accorded  to  the  Cabinet  in  relation  to  foreign  affairs  has 
financial  consequences  which  cannot  be  kept  out  of  account 
in  a  consideration  of  national  expenditure,  and  its  possible 
modification  in  safe  and  practicable  directions  on  this 
account,  if  not  on  others,  may  presently  require  investiga- 
tion. In  the  sphere  of  domestic  legislation,  which  has 
made  substantial  and  growing  demands  upon  public  revenue, 
economy  is  to  be  sought  not  in  opposition  to  legitimate 
demands  founded  upon  a  reasonable  claim  for  social  better- 
ment, but  in  a  closer  investigation  of  legislative  proposals 
and  in  a  resolute  insistence  upon  economy  in  the  machinery 
of  administration.  The  party  system  of  government, 
nurtured  as  it  is  on  appeals  to  pwpular  programmes,  and 
sustained  by  legislative  machinery  which  almost  automatic- 
ally registers  the  decisions  of  the  Executive,  has  dangers 
which  qualify  its  advantages,  and  these  become  more 
apparent  as  the  social  ideals  of  a  democracy  quicioen  and 
expand.  The  scrutiny  of  Parliament  becomes  less  search- 
ing and  thorough,  and  legislation  suffers  in  efficiency  and 
utility  and,  too  often,  in  permanent  cost. 

The  result  is  good  neither  for  the  particular  scheme 
of  reform,  which  starts  its  career  with  defects  which' 
adequate  discussion  might  have  disclosed,  nor  for  the  tax- 
payer, whose  burden  is  increased  by  the  cost  of  all 
extravagance  in  the  provision  of  administrative  machinery. 

That  this  is  not  an  exaggerated  danger  any  one  with 
recent  Parliamentary  experience  will  know.  Others  without 
that  expyerieaice  may  find  significant  corroborative  sugges- 
tions in  the  final  report  of  the  Committee  on  Retrenchment. 

But  apart  altogether  from  the  part  which  policy  plays 
in  the  increase  of  national  expenditure,  it  is  certain  that 
in  the  sphere  of  departmental  and  public  administration 
there  is  opportunity  and  need  for  reorganization  which 
would  effect  important  ecorK>mies  and — what  is  the  highest 
form  of  economy — ^lead  to  greater  efficiency.  The  public 
departments,  for  the  most  part  (apart  from  war  changes),  have 
undergone  little  substantial  change  in  their  structural  organ- 
ization for  many  years  past.  Recent  Acts  of  Parliament  have 
added   considerably   to    their    duties   and    have    led   to   the 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  359 

creation  of  special  sub-departments  which,  in  some  cases,  ill- 
accord  with  the  traditional  and  characteristic  work  of  the 
.parent  department.  These  extensions  of  responsibiUty  and 
duties  have  sometimes  been  accidental,  and  many  have  been 
purely  opportunistic.  Meantime  other  activities  and  sub- 
departments  have  not  been  systematically  review«d,  and  some 
have  diminished  considerably  in  utility  and  importance. 
5ome  of  the  minor  departments  of  the  Board  of  Trade— 
e.g.  the  London  Traffic  Branch  and  the  Light  Railway 
Commission— provide  particular  illustrations  of  the  change 
in  conditions  referred  to.  The  area  open  to  reorganiza- 
tion and  retrenchment  in  many  of  the  public  departments 
IS,  indeed,  a  matter  of  almost  common  knowledge.  Parts 
of  it  are  significantly  indicated  in  the  recent  recommenda- 
tions of  the  Committee  on  Retrenchment  in  the  Public 
Expenditure  and  in  other  similar  reports,  and  notably  in 
the  important  but  neglected  reports  of  the  Royal  Com- 
imsision   on  the   Civil   Service.' 

Efficient  and  drastic  reorganization  would  have  the 
further  effect  of  preventing  much  unfortunate  and  costly 
■^overlapping  in  administrative  work,  of  which  the  medical 
•and  health  activities  of  the  Board  of  Education  and  the 
Local  Government  Board  in  respect  to  arrangements  for 
the  health  of  mothers  and  young  children  under  school  age 
■may  be  cited  as  a  single  example.  At  present  there  is 
no  clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the  work  of  the 
two  departments,  and  overlapping  and  waste  are  inevitable. 

The  staffing  of  our  public  departments  and  the  survival 
'Of  sinecure  offices  are  other  matters  which  call  for  de- 
tailed and  fearless  investigation.  It  may  be  true,  as  the 
Committee  on  Retrenchment  suggested,  that  the  Civil 
Service  generally  is  not  overpaid  ;  it  is  probably  the  case 
that,  speaking  generally,  "  the  State  is  obtaining  valuable 
•services  at  a  very  reasonable  cost  "  ;  and  inasmuch  as 
the  cost  of  salaries  and  wages  in  Civil  Departments  (ex- 
'Cluding  police  and  school  teachers  in  Ireland)  accounts 
for  only  £5,000,000  out  of  the  total  Civil  Service  Esti- 
mates of  £59,000,000,  there  may  not  appear  to  be 
opportunity  for  substantial  economies.     But  excessive  estab- 

'  The  recent  creation,  by  sub-division,  of  separate  labour  and  shipping  de- 
partments is  an  improvisation  due  to  poHtical  and  war  exigencies.  It  may  be 
a  pointer  to  a  larger  and  more  deliberate  scheme  of  reorganization  hereafter. 
It  is  plainly  an  imperfect  improvisation  which,  in  regard  to  labour  matters 
•^particularly,  must  be  extended  and  developed  to  be  permanent. 


S6o      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

lishments  (and  especially  the  preoccupation  of  well-paid 
officials  with  mechanical  and  routine  work  which  could 
well  be  delegated  to  junior  clerks)  have  both  direct  and. 
indirect  effects  upon  administrative  efficiency  which  are 
more  costly  to  the  State  than  the  amount  of  the  redundant 
salaries  paid.  The  Treasury,  it  is  true,  have  full  powers- 
to  deal  with  questions  of  staff,  and  do  in  fact  "  hold 
inquiries  and  appoint  special  committees  from  time  to  time 
as  necessity  arises",;  but  more  than  this  is  required  if 
the  public  services  are  to  be  reorganized  on  a  sound  and 
efficient  and  scientific  basis.  This  is  made  clear  in  re- 
peated observations  by  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Civil 
Service,  which,  although  precluded  both  by  its  terms  of 
reference  and,  as  it  frankly  confesses,  by  its  constitution, 
from  investigating  the  matter  in  detail,  is  at  no  pains  to- 
conceal  its  belief  in  the  opportunities  for  reduction  pre- 
sented in  various  public  departments.  Burke's  dictum  that 
•*-  the  encumbrance  of  useless  office  "  lies  "  no  less  a  dead 
weight  upon  the  services  of  the  State  than  upon  its 
revenues  "  '  is  one  which  may  be  recalled  to-day  ;  and 
the  principle  which  he  then  enunciated  that  "  all  offices 
which  bring  more  charge  than  proportional  advantage  to 
the  State  .  .  .  ought  to  be  taken  away  "  is  one  whicK 
has  abiding  importance  and  force. 

Incidental  reference  has  already  been  made  to  another 
form  of  waste  which,  although  repeatedly  emphasized  by 
various  Parliamentary  and  other  Committees,  appears  by 
its  persistence  to  indicate  radical  defects  in  our  present 
system  of  financial  and  administrative  control,  and  equal 
or  worse  defects  in  the  capacity  and  disposition  towards 
economy  of  many  of  our  public  servants.  I  refer  to  the- 
carelessness  and  slovenliness  and  disregard  of  rudimentary 
checks  and  safeguards  with  which  contracts  for  supplies 
of  all  descriptions  are  frequently  negotiated  by  State 
Departments,  and  to  extravagance  in  the  requisition  and 
use  of  supplies.  The  latest  report  of  the  Committee  of 
Public  Accounts  (No .  115,  1 9 1 6)  contains  startling 
evidence  of  widespread  waste  and  of  incredible  neglect 
of  ordinary  business  principles  ;  and  while  some  of  the 
instances  quoted  are  properly  attributable  to  urgent  con- 
ditions created  by  an  unprecedented  emergency,  the  dis- 
closures are,  in  the  main,  a  scathing  exposure  of  defective- 

'  Speech  on  the  economical  reformation  of  the  Civil  and  other  Services,. 
February  nth,  1780. 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  361 

organization  and  of  lack  of  prevision  and  control.  Some 
of  the  instances  referred  to  betray  a  culpable  negligence 
and  a  reckless  indifference  to  financial  considerations  which 
not  even  the  extraordinary  urgency  of  the  crisis  can 
condone. 

If  we  turn  to  a  much  more  circumscribed  area  of  public 
expenditure,  we  find  much  suggestive  evidence  of  need- 
less waste  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Select  Committee 
on  Publications.  The  work  of  this  Committee  receives 
less  attention  than  its  achievements  deserve,  but  the  un- 
economic arrangements  which  it  has  repeatedly  exposed,^ 
and  the  aggregate  economies  which  its  recommendations 
have  from  time  to  time  effected,  have  a  suggestive  import- 
ance which  is  much  greater  than  the  substantial  sums  which 
it  has  rescued  from  wasteful  use.  They  indicate  the  need 
for  a  larger  and  broader  survey  of  ordinary  departmental 
expenditure  such  as  existing  committees,  limited  in  function 
and  in  constitution,  are  unable  to  undertake.  Meantime  the 
work  of  these  committees  would  be  more  fruitful  in  results 
if  their  comments  and  recommendations  were  regularly  dis- 
cussed in  Parliament.  The  Select  Committee  on  National 
Expenditure  in  1902  recommended  that  an  opportunity 
should  be  provided  by  the  Government  for  the  discussion 
of  the  Reports  of  the  Public  Accounts  Committee  by  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  but  this  procedure  has  been  adopted 
only  in  five  subsequent  years — viz.  1905,  1907,  1908,  1910, 
and  1 91 6 — although  it  quite  clearly  ought  to  be  part  of 
the  indispensable  business  of  every  session.  This  is  the 
view  of  the  Committee  itself,  which,  in  its  latest  report, 
suggests  "  that  at  least  one  day  in  each  session  should 
be  set  aside  by  Standing  Order  for  the  consideration  of 
the  repKjrts  of  the  Committee." 

One  other  aspect — a  very  important  one — of  the  problem 
of  national  thrift  remains  to  be  considered.  Thrift,  in  a 
national  sense,  is  concerned  not  merely  with  expenditure, 
but  with  the  methods  and  forms  of  taxation.  It  involves 
the  question  not  only  of  how  money  is  spent,  but  also  of 
how  it  is  raised. 

Taxaticai,  as  already  indicated,  is  but  a  means  to  an 
end.  The  necessity  which  imposes  it  is  created  by  the 
objects  to  which  the  fiscal  revenue  is  to  be  directed,  and 
the  propvortions  of  the  necessity  in  a  democratic  State 
dei>end  upon  the  importance  and  variety  of  the  ends  which 
a  nation  wills  to  secure.     As  a  long -forgotten  writer  of  the 


362      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

eighth  century,  Lu  Chih,  put  it  :  "  To  create  offices  and 
to  establish  government  is  for  the  end  of  nourishing  the 
people.  To  tax  the  people  and  to  get  revenue  is  for  the 
means  of  supporting  the  Government.  A  wise  ruler  does 
not  increase  the  means  at  the  expense  of  the  end. 
Therefore,  he  must  first  pay  his  attention  to  the  business 
of  the  people,  and  give  them  a  full  chance  for  their 
■economic  activities.  He  must  first  enrich  every  family, 
and  then  collect  the  surplus   of  their  income." 

The  task  is  more  easily  stated  than  achieved,  but  it  is 
as  certain  as  anything  can  be  that  a  system  of  taxation 
which  either  "  increases  the  means  at  the  expense  of  the 
•end,"  or  that  has  incidental  or  indirect  effects  which  un- 
necessarily augment  the  weight  of  the  tax,  or  which 
encroaches  upon  the  inadequate  reserves  of  particular 
classes,  is  essentially  wasteful  and  destructive  of  thrift.  An 
appreciation  of  this  fact  inevitably  raises  the  question  of 
the  relative  merits,  from  a  thrift  standpoint  solely,  of  direct 
and  indirect  methods  of  taxation.  The  advantages  and 
defects  of  both  have  been  freely  and  repeatedly  canvassed  ; 
but  most  of  the  discussions,  and  all  the  decisions  founded 
upon  them,  have  been  governed  by  considerations  of 
political  expediency  rather  than  by  economic  considerations 
involving  the  elements  of  national  thrift. 

Now  whatever  may  be  the  purely  political  merits  of 
indirect  taxes — and  these  may  be  examined  later — it  is  not 
•questionable  that  they  are  wasteftd  and  unthrifty  revenue- 
producing  instruments.  They  are  costly  in  collection,  far- 
reaching  and  (for  large  classes  of  the  population)  unequal 
and  impoverishing  in  their  effect,  and  injurious,  in  varying 
hut  certain  degree,  to  trade  and  commerce.  They  bring 
into  the  revenue  far  less  than  the  amount  taken  out  of 
the  pockets  of  the  consumer  and,  in  the  case  of  taxes 
upon  commodities  of  necessary  consumption,  encroach  upon 
resources  which  are  already,  in  the  case  of  the  poorer 
classes,  too  slender  for  efficient  subsistence .  The  weight 
•of  their  incidence  is,  in  fact,  in  inverse  ratio  to  taxable 
capacity.  A  tea  tax  or  a  sugar  tax — whatever  its  political 
merits — taxes  a  man  in  proportion  to  his  necessities  instead 
of  in  proportion  to  his  ability  to  }>ay.  To  that  extent,  on 
any  reasonable  or  even  tolerable  theory  of  national  pro- 
gress, indirect  taxes  are  essentially  uneconomic  and 
^mthrifty   (as  well  as  unjust)  revenue-producing  expedients. 

To  a  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  on  the  other  hand. 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  363 

they  have  obvious  political  merits.  They  are  easy  of 
collection,  imperceptible  and  convenient  in  their  incidence, 
and,  as  is  alleged,  really  self-imposed.  Hume,  in  1741, 
^ave  his  authority  to  these  advantages  in  the  following 
words  : 

"  The  best  taxes  are  such  as  are  levied  upon  consump- 
tions, especially  those  of  luxury,  because  such  taxes  are 
least  felt  by  the  people.  They  seem,  in  some  measure, 
voluntary,  since  a  man  may  choose  how  far  he  will  use 
the  commodity  which  is  taxed  :  they  are  paid  gradually 
<and  insensibly  :  they  naturally  produce  sobriety  and 
frugality,  if  judiciously  imposed  :  and  being  confounded 
with  the  natural  price  of  the  commodity,  they  are  scarcely 
.perceived  by  the  consumers.  Their  only  disadvantage  is, 
that  they  are  expensive  in  the  levying." 

Adam  Smith,  who  held  that  "  every  tax  ought  to  be 
levied  at  the  time,  or  in  the  manner,  in  which  it  is  most 
Jikely  to  be  convenient  for  the  contributor  to  pay  it,"  gave 
a  qualified  approval  to  Hume's  view  in  the  case  of  "  taxes 
xipon  such  consumable  goods  as  are  articles  of  luxury." 
Such  taxes,  he  said,  "  are  finally  paid  by  the  consumer, 
and  generally  in  a  manner  that  is  very  convenient  for  him. 
He  pays  them  little  by  little,  as  he  has  occasion  to  buy 
the  goods.  As  he  is  at  liberty,  too,  either  to  buy  or 
not  to  buy,  as  he  pleases,  it  must  be  his  own  fault  if  jhe  lever 
rsuffers  any  considerable  inconveniency  from  such  taxes." 

This  view  of  the  "  volimtariness  "  of  indirect  taxes 
plainly  requires  very  considerable  qualification.  Its 
validity  depends  absolutely  upon  the  proper  definition 
>of  a  "luxury."  While  an  excise  or  customs  duty,  say, 
•on  wine  or  spirits  is  entitled  to  be  considered  a  self- 
imposed  tax,  a  tax  on  food  or  any  other  commodity  of 
•universal  and  necessary  consumption  is  obviously  an  in- 
voluntary tax.  Nor  does  the  "voluntariness"  of  a  tax 
justify  it  economically.  Even  in  the  case  of  pure  luxuries 
the  imp>osition  of  a  tax  is  wasteful  if  it  causes  an  excessive 
(i.e.  disproportionate)  increase  in  the  price  of  the 
-commodity  to  the   consumer. 

Nor  is  the  argument  based  upon  the  comparative  "  im- 
perceptibility  "  of  indirect  taxes  one  that  can  be  pressed. 
Dr.  Channing  rightly  held  that  "a  free  people  ought  to 
know  what  they  pay  for  freedom,"  and  that  "  they  should 
as  truly  scorn  to  be  cheated  into  the  support  of  their 
Oovemment  as   into  the  support   of  their  children." 


364      NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

'•  If  citizenship  has  in  it,"  as  another  writer  observes^ 
"  some  desirable  possibilities  in  developing  the  human  race^ 
then  for  a  Government  to  abet,  encourage,  or  build  upon 
the  ignorance  of  its  citizens  in  such  a  matter  is  as  evil 
and  vicious  as  for  a  despotism  to  abet,  encourage,  or  build, 
upon  the  general  ignorance  of  the  masses  of  its  subjects  . 
It  is  not  a  good  thing,  but  an  evil  thing,  that  people 
should  be  paying  shillings  in  taxation  whilst  having  a 
befogged  idea  that  they  are  paying  pennies.  Let  them 
know  that  they  are  paying  shillings,  and  their  interest  in 
the  manner  of  spending  the  shillings  will  be  aroused."  ' 

The  importance  of  the  matter,  from  the  standpoint  of 
national  thrift,  was  well  put  by  Herbert  Spencer  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago  :  "-  The  aim  of  the  politician  commonly 
is  to  raise  public  funds  in  such  a  way  as  shall  leave 
the  citizen  partly  or  wholly  unconscious  of  the  deductions 
made  from  his  income.  .  .  .  But  this  system,  being  oner 
which  takes  furtively  sums  which  it  would  be  difficult  to> 
get  openly,  achieves  an  end  which  should  not  be  achieved- 
The  resistance  to  taxation,  thus  evaded,  is  a  wholesome 
resistance  ;  and,  if  not  evaded,  would  put  a  proper  check 
on  public  expenditure." 

Mr.  Gladstone,  while  describing,  in  1861,  direct  and 
indirect  methods  of  taxation  as  "  two  attractive  sisters,"  - 
to  both  of  whom,  "  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  if  not 
as  a  member  of  this  House,"  he  had  "  always  thought  it 
not  only  allowable,  but  even  an  act  of  duty,"  to  pay  his 
addresses,  admitted  in  a  letter  to  his  brother  in  1859  that 
"  if  you  had  only  direct  taxes,  you  would  have  economical 
^  government." 

*  It  is  undeniable  that,  to  a  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,. 
who  is  concerned  to  secure  productive  taxes  witk  the 
minimimi  risk  of  political  disturbance,  indirect  taxes  are 
peculiarly  attractive.  Provided  that  they  can  be  easily  and 
cheaply  collected  and  that  they  do  not  too  violently  disturb 
the  processes  of  trade,  their  justification  is  held  to  be 
complete.  It  is  no  part  of  a  Finance  Minister's  accepted 
duty  to  safeguard  the  consumer  against  excessive  enhance- 
ments of  price,  nor  are  these  excessive  and  dispwopor- 
tionate  enhancements  included,  as  they  strictly  should  be,. 

'  R.  Jones,  "  The  Nature  and  First  Principle  of  Taxation,"  p.  207. 

=  The  simile  seems  hardly  consistent  with  the  glowing  epitome  of  the 
beneficent  results  of  the  remission  of  indirect  taxes  which  was  given  in  the- 
same  speech. 


NATIONAL    THRIFT  *^365 

in  the  costs  of  collection.  They  must,  however,  be  taken 
into  account  in  any  estimate  of  the  comparative  merits, 
from  an  economic  and  thrift  point  of  view,  of  direct  and 
indirect  systems  of  taxation.  The  enhanced  profits  of 
traders — including  importers  or  manufacturers,  merchants, 
middlemen,  and  shopkeepers — upon  the  taxes  they  advance 
are  a  burden  upon  the  consumer  which  is  as  wasteful  as 
it  is  arbitrary  and  unjust.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
economy  and  thrift,  it  is  a  rudimentary  proposition 
that  (in  Adam  Smith's  words)  "  every  tax  ought  to  be 
so  contrived  as  both  to  take  out  and  to  keep  out  of 
the  pockets  of  the  people  as  little  as  possible  over 
and  above  what  it  brings  into  the  public  treasury  of  the 
State." 

It  may  be  a  counsel  of  perfection  to  urge  the  immediate 
abolition  of  all  indirect  taxes,  save,  possibly,  those  on  pure 
luxuries  ;  but  so  long  as  they  are  preserved  the  respon- 
sibility of  a  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  ought  not  to  be 
limited,  as  now,  to  the  imposition  and  collection  of  the 
tax,  but  should  extend  to  the  protection  of  the  consumer 
against  disproportionate  and  unjustifiable  additions  to  the 
price  of  the  articles  taxed.  Fortunately,  the  course  of 
fiscal  policy  in  later  years  has  substantially  modified  the 
former  costly  system.  In  1841  indirect  taxes  produced 
three -fourths  (y  2,  per  cent.)  of  the  tax  revenue.  In  1861 
the  proportion  had  fallen  to  six -tenths  (62  per  cent.),  and 
that  proportion  was  maintained,  with  slight  variations,  for 
something  like  thirty  years.  In  1891  the  proportion  had 
fallen  to  56  per  cent.,  and  by  1901  direct  and  indirect 
taxes  approximately  balanced,  indirect  taxes  being  respon- 
sible for  slightly  less  than  one-half  (49  per  cent.)  of  the 
total  tax  revenue.  Since  then  there  has  been  a  further 
readjustment,  and  in  the  present  year  (191 6-1 7)  indirect 
taxes  are  expected  to  yield  3 4' 6  per  cent.,  and  direct  taxes 
(excluding  the  excess  profits  duty)  65-4  per  cent,  of  the 
total  tax  revenue. 

While  it  is  now  generally  admitted  that  this  rearrange- 
ment of  the  relative  proportions  of  direct  and  indirect  taxa- 
tion has  been  equitable  and  pK)litically  expedient,  it  is 
demonstrable  that,  taking  a  long  and  broad  view  of  national 
interest,  it  has  been  economical  and  fruitful.  What  Mr. 
Gladstone  said  of  the  eflfect  of  the  remissions  of  indirect 
taxes  between  1842  and  1857  is  true  of  all  such  remis- 
sions .      They    mean   --  so    much   addition   to    the    comforts 


366     NATIONAL    FINANCE    AND    TAXATION 

and  resources,  so  much  deduction  from  the  privations  andi 
the  difficulties,  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people." 

"If,"  as  he  added  four  years  later  (in  1861),  "we 
had  not  gained  one  single  shilling  by  the  remission  of 
indirect  taxation,  it  would  have  been  worth  having  for 
the  sake  of  the  manner  in  which  it  has  knit  together  the 
interests  and  feelings  of  all  classes  of  the  community,  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  had  had  nothing  to  Ido  with  any  question  of  moral 
and  social  results,  stUl  the  merely  economical  effects,  in. 
promoting  the  material  well-being  of  the  people,  have  been, 
so  signal  and  extraordinary  that  we  may  well  rejoice  ta 
have  lived  in  a  period  during  which  it  has  been  our  happy 
lot  to  take  part  in  bringing  about  such  changes." 

All  classes,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  said  in  1859,  are  aflfected 
by  taxation,  but  **  indirect  taxation  weighs  with  much  more 
severe  pressure  upon  the  poor  and  labouring  man."  Direct. 
taxes  like  the  income-tax,  on  the  other  hand,  have  the 
economical  adv^antage  that  they  tend  to  take  in  taxation 
the  less  useful  portion  of  private  incomes,  whereas  indirect 
taxes  by  creating  artificial  prices  often  encroach  upon 
income  that  is  vital  to  health  and  efficiency. 

The  true  and  economically  sound  principle  upon  which, 
taxation  should  be  based  was  laid  down  by  Lord  Palmerston 
in  1846.  "If,"  he  said,  "we  are  obliged  to  call  upon, 
any  class  to  make  for  the  public  service  a  sacrifice  of 
a  large  portion  of  their  incomes,  whether  arisirig  from 
commerce,  from  professions,  or  from  labour,  that  very  fact 
is  the  strongest  possible  reason  why  we  should  endeavour 
to  enable  them  to  make  that  remainder,  which  we  leave 
to  them,  go  as  far  as  it  possibly  can  in  procuring  for 
them,  according  to  their  respective  situations  in  life,  the 
necessaries,  the  conveniences,  or  the  luxuries  which  they 
may  wish  to  enjoy."  ' 

We    thus    return    to    the    proposition    with    which    we 
started  :    that  the  methods   and   forms  of  taxation  are  aft 
integral  part  of  the  problem  of  national  thrift. 
•  Corn  Law  Debate,  March  27, 1846. 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  by 
UNWIN  BROTHERS,  LIlilTRO,  THE  6RESHAM  PRESS,  WORINS  AND  LONDOK 


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